


The Avengers Job

by RemingtonFae, witchbarnes (spacebuck)



Category: Leverage, Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers - Ambiguous Fandom
Genre: AU as of Age of Ultron, Captain America: The Winter Soldier Compliant, Darcy/Eliot is the goal, Gen, Multi, Post Finale - Leverage, both teams really, but really this is a fic about team work and nerd things and people, maybe Hawkeye comics compliant, team fic
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-06-02
Updated: 2016-07-21
Packaged: 2018-02-03 04:36:01
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 13
Words: 30,614
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1731344
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RemingtonFae/pseuds/RemingtonFae, https://archiveofourown.org/users/spacebuck/pseuds/witchbarnes
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Eliot wasn't looking to get involved in the craziness in New York, but he wasn't about to let anyone (even some woman he hadn't met) get snatched off the street. </p>
<p>Darcy was just trying to have a normal night out, but nothing had been normal since she tased a bellowing blond guy in the desert three years ago.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The Bar

**Author's Note:**

> So I read a lot of fanfic, but this is my first stab at writing. It is unbeta'd (if anyone wants to be a sounding board or beta, please let me know), and while I have a vague storyline, nothing is set in stone. Updates will likely be sporadic.. but there are a lot of ideas.

Eliot slumped in the back corner of the bar, nursing his beer and peering at the crowd through his hair. The atmosphere was just what he needed - sparse lighting, a well used wooden bar, a jukebox, and a couple of pool tables. Places like this helped him unwind after a job, and the last one had been tough. They had been collecting information on a shady insurance adjuster, and were trapped by security on the 78th floor in the middle of the day. With tempers heightened and security tightened after the whole alien-portal thing a couple years ago, and again with the SHIELD/HYDRA fiasco last month (which may have been mostly in DC, but that shit happened everywhere), extraction was extremely difficult. They made it out this time, whole and with the information, but work in this city was getting more complicated and he was going to have to convince Parker and Hardison they needed to stay out of New York.

Things were different without Sophie and Nate. Not that he missed them, with their awful flirting, and Sophie’s terrible acting, and Nate’s drunken stupidity, and.. well. He did miss having two more people he trusted at his back. He and Parker and Hardison worked well together, but there were days when he felt the empty spaces in the team. Not to mention that since Hardison had pulled his head out of his ass about Parker, there was the more than occasional ‘third-wheel’ feeling.

Tonight Parker and Hardison were off celebrating their win - either jumping off of something, or rolling in money, or playing video games (it depended on whose turn it was to choose the activity). So he sat alone with his beer, back to the corner, and let the murmur of the low key crowd wash over him.

His eyes moved over the fairly scant patronage. Mostly people dressed like him - boots, denim, tee shirts, flannel - who looked like they worked construction. That made sense; even two and a half years later, New York was still rebuilding. The bulk of them were grouped around the pool tables, typical after-work decompressing. There were a few others dotted near the bar and nearby tables, but no one who really grabbed his focus.

He was trying to decide whether he wanted another beer when he heard her.

“Hey Harry, give me another one?” He hadn’t really registered her initially, she was seated on the far side of the bar in a grey cardigan and square black framed glasses. His subconscious dismissed her as a threat and he wasn’t really looking for company, so it wasn’t surprising that he hadn’t seen her earlier. While the bartender pulled her another beer, she hopped up to fiddle with the jukebox. Tight dark denim and black converse sneakers, long dark waves of hair and apparently an appreciation for Johnny Cash. She made her way back to her seat while ignoring the several leers and a couple of half-hearted catcalls from a knot of construction guys in their late twenties.

Once she was settled with her beer, Eliot made his way toward the bartender, signaling for a refill. He thought about sitting at the bar and chatting the girl (woman?) but she had her eyes closed and her head tilted back against the wall. He got that. So he threw some cash on the bar and took his beer back to his corner. While his eyes didn’t close, the combination of decent beer and good music lulled him enough that he almost startled when he heard her voice again.

“Thanks Harry. See you in a couple days.” She swung a canvas messenger bag across her body, draped a cord around her neck (earbuds?), and headed for the door. Eliot was about to go back to his beer when he noticed one of the guys near the bar lock eyes with one of the construction workers at the next table. The three guys at the table got up and walked out the front door, while two from the bar went toward the back exit.

Shit.

 

* * *

 

This week was awful, and it was only Wednesday. To be fair, the last few weeks had been awful, and she was just thankful to make it to this one.

After the whole London with Space Aliens thing, she and Jane had hightailed it back to the States with Eric in tow. Thor showed up in New Mexico about a week later, Eric just sort of freaked out (again) and left for the mountains, and they sort of laid low and crunched numbers and ate Pop-Tarts. Ian called a week after Christmas from the airport in Santa Fe and asked if he could crash with Darcy for a while. ‘Thank you for saving me from Alien-Elf-Things’ kiss or not, she was not going to give up any of her hard won trailer space to Ian, but she convinced Jane to let him crash in a hammock at the gas station.

Ian had apparently thought their kiss was some sort of epic romance thing.. and not the thank-fuck-we’re-alive thing that Darcy had decided it was, but he did coffee and pastry runs when she and Jane were busy crunching numbers, and managed to dial down the puppy eyes so that Thor didn’t turn him into a paste with Myuh-Myuh. Everybody wins.

Then it all went to shit.

She heard Jane’s confused shouts and saw Ian trying to shove her into the car.. so Darcy tased the shit out of him and they both started screaming for Thor. In the course of about 2 hours, they found out that (a) most of SHIELD was actually HYDRA, (b) Captain America and Black Widow had foiled some sort of mass-murdering HYDRA plot by putting SHIELD onto wikileaks, and (c) Ian was HYDRA. Yeah. Jane, Darcy, and Thor shoved what they could into the truck and the trailer and bugged out. Two days later Jane gets a call from Pepper Fucking Potts saying the three of them need to get to Stark Tower asap.

So they drive across the country, and end up in the tower with the fucking Avengers. It was great in the whole ‘rent free apartment in Stark Tower with a stocked kitchen’ way of thinking, but it was a bit.. stifling. Jane had her SCIENCE and Thor, everyone else was a freaking superhero, and Darcy just kinda.. kept on being an intern. She got to do absurd things like watch movies with Captain America, and Black Widow was teaching her some moves that did not involve her taser. She started cooking in huge quantities to feed whoever managed to make it to the kitchen while the food was hot, and brought sandwiches down to the labs when Jane and the Science Bros went on a Science bender.

She just felt.. adrift. A couple times a week she would head out to Harry’s and drink decent beer and commandeer the jukebox and pretend that her life wasn’t completely confusing.

This week was bad in particular, because Barton had just gotten back from some drama with his brother, and Natasha was expressing her unhappiness in a direct and emotionally honest manner.. by hitting him a lot. ‘Sparring.’ Whatever. There was a lot of swearing in Russian. Cap was broody because he was positive that Bucky had saved him from drowning and was now running free who knows where, and Sam was trying to keep him from spending all day walking through the city yelling “BUCKY” and putting up Lost Bestie posters or whatever he thought of next. ‘Star-Spangled Man-with-a-Plan, _my ass_.’ Jane and the Science Bros were deep in science land, but they had all slept last night, so she legit had no use in the lab today.

So, beer’o’clock it was. She left the Tower (it wasn’t sneaking.. no one asked, so she didn’t tell) and made it to Harry’s before sunset. She had Johnny Cash, her favorite seat at the bar, and no one was yelling or sciencing or brooding or even talking in her direction. It was fucking awesome. Two beers and a couple dozen songs, and Darcy felt more like a person. She put some cash down for her tab, put her earbuds around her neck for the walk, and headed back toward the tower.

It wasn’t a long walk, maybe 15 minutes total, but it was dark and this was the city. Darcy wasn’t stupid. She kept one earbud in (with the music on low), and one hand in her bag on her taser while she trooped back to the side entrance of the Tower.

Three minutes into her walk she got that weird itchy feeling on the back of her neck that either meant someone was watching her or she had a bug caught in her hair. She thought she heard footsteps, but this is New York, and even when it’s quiet, it isn’t really quiet.

She pulled her earbud out and stuffed the headphones into her bag, hitching it up a little and walking a little faster. There was no harm in being cautious. She turned right down the next street and crossed the road and stopped short when she saw two guys who looked vaguely familiar from the bar less than a block in front of her. She went to turn back and saw three more.

Shit.

 

* * *

 

Darcy pulled her taser out of her bag and reached toward her back pocket for her phone as she twisted to put her back to the building next to her. Swiping her thumb across the pattern lock screen on her phone and mashing the red button icon in the center, she screamed.

“MISTER WIZARD! GET ME THE HELL OUT OF HERE!”  She thought it was a good emergency phrase. The five goons closed in fast, realizing their prey was calling for backup. Darcy swung her taser toward the closest one.

“Back OFF!” They didn’t. She fired her taser ~~into~~ the closest one’s chest and he dropped like a depowered Norse God. Unfortunately, that effectively disarmed her, and there were four more guys. Dropping her taser, Darcy backed closer to the wall behind her as the guys closed in a loose semicircle. She could hear Natasha’s voice echoing in her head. ‘Keep your eyes open. Use what is around you. If you get the chance, _run away_.’ She shoved her phone into her back pocket and tightened the strap on her bag.

“C’mon, Miss Lewis. You know how this is gonna end.” Oh _fuck_ no. They knew her name. The fleeting hope that this was just normal violence (and isn’t that a fucked up thought) disappeared. Hope that she could get away was also disappearing - four random dudes with misogyny issues she could maybe outrun, but four HYDRA goons who likely had SHIELD training? Fuck.

“Fuck off you Nazi assholes!” Well, at least she was gonna stall and kick and scream in the hopes that JARVIS would get someone from the Tower down here asap.

Chatty Goon dodged her elbow as he moved in closer and grabbed her by the hair. He swung her closer and banded his other arm around her, pinning her arms. She shrieked as she kicked at his shins and ankles, and the hand in her hair let go. Feeling a little vindicated she struggled more, and then felt a sharp pain in her immobilized arm. Fuuuuuck. Then the arm holding her still was gone and she realized she could hear the sounds of punching.

Feeling a little dizzy, she half fell backward into the wall behind her and blinked to focus her eyes. Two of the HYDRA guys were on the ground next to the one she tasered, and the last two were fighting with a new guy. She would have thought it was Barton, he was the right height and build, but New Guy had hair past his chin and was wearing a flannel shirt which contained no purple. He had a bit of a manic smile on his face as he knocked Chatty Goon out cold and stood over the pile of unconscious HYDRA dudes. He looked up at her and held his hands up a bit in a pacifying gesture. He said something that she couldn’t quite make out.

Darcy just stared, confused. Also she wasn’t talking, which was.. unlike her. The dizziness wasn’t getting better.. in fact, her vision was getting a bit swimmy. _Oh_.

Shit.

 

* * *

 

Eliot trailed behind the guys from the bar. He kept them just barely in sight, and had to walk slowly as they didn’t seem to be in a hurry and he didn’t want to get any closer. He didn’t know what exactly he was dealing with, which was not a comfortable experience. He saw the three guys turn right and lost sight of them completely, but kept his pace until he heard the woman scream.

“MISTER WIZARD! GET ME THE HELL OUT OF HERE!” Okay. Weird. “Back OFF!”

Eliot took off running toward the sound. As he rounded the corner he saw four of them men ranged around the woman, whose back was to the building with one arm outstretched toward a man on the ground. Was that a taser?

He heard one of the men say something. The woman went from spitting mad and flushed to pale and terrified. Her whole body seemed to shudder.

“Fuck off you Nazi assholes!” Okay. Right then.

As Eliot moved forward, the man that spoke grabbed the woman. She flailed and screamed and kicked, which provided a decent distraction as he took down the two men closest to him. He saw the one who had spoken earlier dodging the woman’s kicks, but he didn’t seem to be hurting her, just restraining her.

Eliot growled at the second to last guy as he crashed his forearm into the guy’s throat and kicked the side of his knee. The last guy let go of the woman and came at him. Eliot grinned and ducked under a punch and slammed his elbow hard into the guys face. The sound of the bad guy’s head hitting the pavement had a certain finality to it.

Finally Eliot looked at the woman. She was leaning heavily against the brick wall behind her, shaking her head a little and blinking.

“Are you okay?” Eliot took a half step toward her. “Ma’am?” She looked confused, and hadn’t moved from her spot on the wall. He held his hands up a little to show he didn’t mean any harm. He moved closer and saw that her eyes were unfocused and glassy. She looked like she was trying to shake herself out of it, and that is when he saw the syringe caught in the arm of her cardigan. He moved quickly toward her as she lost the battle with consciousness and started to slide sideways. Eliot caught her against his chest and looked down.

Shit.

 

 


	2. What is it about Darcy?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The team find out she's missing.. but who has her?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for the support so far! Still un-beta'd (let me know if anyone is interested) and I am working on the next bit. There isn't a set schedule for updates, it depends on how frustrating my thesis gets. (If there are any mistakes, or things I forgot to tag, please let me know!)

 

Standing on the sidewalk surrounded by five men in various states of insensibility, while holding a drugged, unconscious woman who he _didn’t actually know_ was not a good idea. The first course of action needed to be getting away from the bad guys. Eliot shifted the woman to one side so he could slide an arm under her knees, lifted her up bridal style, and walked as quickly as he dared. He didn’t want to go back to the bar or in the direction she had been headed, since both those locations seemed to be compromised, so he walked back a ways and took off in a random direction.

Somewhere in the second block, he got strange looks from a couple on the other side of the street. He hitched the woman up a little higher on his chest, and pressed his face into her hair, hoping it would look more like he was being romantic and chivalrous.

Three blocks and two turns later, he found a corner stoop with good sightlines and carefully slid the woman into the corner and sat next to her. He pushed a few dark curls out of her face. Her skin was pale, but not unnaturally so, and she didn’t seem to be feverish. Not for the first time tonight, he wondered who she was.

Eliot flipped open the canvas flap of her bag, hoping to find a clue to... something. Her identity, why those men from SHIELD/HYDRA were after her.. anything. What he found was a battered silver iPod with accompanying earbuds, a tube of lipstick, a pack of gum, tissues, an unopened pack of Pop-Tarts, an empty glasses case, three black sharpies, two dry erase markers, a wallet, and at the bottom was a mess of hair ties, bobby pins, and loose change. The wallet gave him a name - Darcy Lewis - with an address in Virginia.

“Darcy Lewis.” Eliot tried lightly shaking her to see if she was anywhere near consciousness. “Ma’am? Darcy?” She showed no signs of waking at all. There was no way to know what had been in the syringe - so she could be out for hours.. or worse. He was going to need help. He reached for his phone to call Hardison (Parker had a habit of never answering hers) and realized he hadn’t found a cell phone in Darcy’s bag. Feeling a little uncomfortable, he lightly patted the pockets on her cardigan and the front of her jeans. Finding nothing, he leaned her closer to him so he could check her back pockets.

Eliot pulled the iPhone out of her pocket, and frowned when he saw the dark, cracked screen. Dialing Hardison’s number on his own phone and holding it to his head with his shoulder, he pressed the button on the bottom of Darcy’s broken phone to see if he could get any more information.. like an emergency contact. The phone stayed stubbornly unresponsive, much like its owner. Hardison’s phone rang through to voicemail.

“Dammit, Hardison!” Eliot was going to have to get Darcy somewhere less public without any help. “Get back to the hotel. I have a situation.”

The hotel was too far to walk, especially carrying someone, so he was going to have to catch a cab. Hauling an unconscious woman into a cab was going to catch notice. Eliot pulled one of the hair ties out of Darcy’s bag and put his hair into a ponytail. After a moment of debate he pulled off her glasses and put them on himself, low enough that he didn’t have to look through them. That should make him a little more difficult to identify, if it should come to that.

Eliot lifted Darcy up again, and cradled her head on his shoulder. He walked two more streets until he found a busier street, and got lucky when a cab came by within minutes. He opened the door and slid carefully into the seat, Darcy now cradled in his lap. Eliot gave the cab driver the address of a hotel two blocks from the one where the team was staying, and put his finger to his lips and mouthed the word ‘sleeping’ when the driver quirked an eyebrow at the unconscious woman.

He spent the trip to the hotel focusing on being as innocuous as possible. He was just a man taking his tired lover back to their hotel room. He pressed his face into her hair as they walked through the hotel lobby, making him less recognizable. Darcy started making small noises as they rode up the elevator - Eliot hoped that meant she would wake up soon. He got into the suite and laid Darcy on the couch, putting her glasses on the coffee table.

He sat down near her feet and just stared at her for a moment. Who was she that merited being kidnapped by SHIELD or HYDRA? He startled at a crashing noise behind him, instantly on his feet between Darcy and the noise.

“See? I knew I could get use back this way! I didn’t even push you off anything!” Parker bounced into the room, followed by a dusty, grumbling Hardison.

“Yes, Parker. Thank you for taking me to the room through the nasty, cramped, dirty, air ducts instead of pushing me off the roof.” Hardison coughed lightly, looking grumpy. “Hey man, what’s up?”

“Why is there a sleeping person on the couch?” Parker was now peeping over the back of the couch, looking at Darcy curiously.

“If Hardison picked up his phone, you would know that I stopped her from being kidnapped by SHIELD or HYDRA or whatever they’re calling themselves today.” Eliot growled, frustrated.

“Why were they after her?” Parker plopped down next to Darcy and started poking her in the thigh. “What’s her name?”

“Darcy Lewis, and I have no idea. I didn’t get a chance to talk to anyone before they were unconscious and she was drugged.” Eliot moved a little closer to Darcy.

“If everyone was unconscious, then how did you know it was SHIELD? How do you know her name? Do you know her?” Hardison started to move closer too, trying to get a better look at the woman.

“I know her name, because I found her ID in her bag. The guys who were after her fought like SHIELD.” Hardison made a light scoffing noise. “What? It’s a very distinctive style.”

They all paused a moment when Darcy made another small noise in her throat. Parker poked her again, but other than the first tiny moaning noise she didn’t respond.

“Hardison, do you think you can get any information off of this?” Eliot held out Darcy’s cracked iPhone. “It was broken when I found it. Maybe there is something on there to tell us who she is and why those guys tried to take her.”

Hardison took the phone to the table where he had all his equipment set up and started doing.. whatever it was he did. Parker put a blanket over Darcy’s legs while Eliot walked to the kitchen to make some coffee. There was nothing to do now but wait until Hardison found something or Darcy woke up.

 

* * *

 

“Sir, Ms. Lewis has activated her emergency beacon.” JARVIS’s voice sounded from the speakers in the lab where Tony and Bruce were working.

“What? Where is she? Isn’t she in the Tower?” Tony spun to a new display and brought up a map of Manhattan, with a green light blinking near 3rd Ave and East 50th St. “What? When did she leave? How did she get there?”

“Ms. Lewis left the Tower two hours and seventeen minutes ago. I did not track her location once she departed.” Tony sent a half-hearted glare at the ceiling.

“Sound the alarm in the Tower and have everyone meet in here. Do we have any camera footage from the area?” Images flashed on the display next to the map, searching for any sign of Darcy. The green light indicating Darcy’s location disappeared just as Sam, Steve, and Natasha strode through the lab doors.

“What? JARVIS? Where did the signal go?” Tony started to frantically shift through screens and snatched up a tablet so he could pace between several displays.

“I am sorry, sir. The signal has disappeared. Her phone may have been damaged. I will continue searching for images of Ms. Lewis in that area.”

“Ms. Lewis? Tony, what is going on?” Steve and Sam looked confused. Natasha’s mouth did that downward shift that meant she was concerned.

“Lewis activated her emergency app on her phone a couple minutes ago. We had a signal at 50th and 3rd, but it just disappeared. JARVIS hasn’t found any cameras in the area with footage yet.” Tony looked frustrated. Darcy Lewis was an excellent addition to the lab. She didn’t get deep into SCIENCE land with them, but she kept them from burning out. More than once she had body-checked him away from his screens toward food that she brought into the lab and stood over ‘Jane and the Science Bros,’ as she called them, until everyone had eaten. Pepper had expressed interest in her Scientist Herding technique, and was considering creating a position for her.

“Okay. Nat, call Clint and tell him to head to that area instead of the Tower.” Natasha took her phone out and Steve looked at Tony. “Clint just left on his way back to Bed-Stuy. He’ll get there first. If we need to, Sam, Nat, and I can head out once we have more information. Where are Thor and Dr. Foster?”

“Thor came and got Jane about an hour ago. The alert would have gone to Thor’s phone if they weren’t in the Tower, but he doesn’t always have it on him.” Bruce looked a little twitchy. He hadn’t left the Tower since the HYDRA takeover of SHIELD, but he liked Darcy. She routinely brought him tea and food when she came to take care of Jane. He still wasn’t used to people being unafraid of him, let alone taking care of him. She was a nice kid, and he was worried about her.

“Clint will check in when he gets there. He had barely gotten in the car. What do we know?” Natasha was concerned. She knew Darcy wasn’t completely comfortable in the Tower, she often found the younger woman standing in the kitchen looking lost. In those instances, Natasha swept her into the gym for defense lessons. Darcy would whine a little, but took to it well enough that Natasha was considering a regular routine in the gym for her - with this development, that seemed like something she should have done earlier.

“Lewis left almost two and a half hours ago. Six minutes ago she activated her emergency app, and three minutes later her signal disappeared. We don’t know why it went out, where she is now, or even why she left the Tower.” Tony swiped and poked angrily at the tablet. “We don’t have any visuals on her after she left the area around the Tower. JARVIS, how is that possible? There are street cameras, ATMs, security cameras in other buildings… There has to be video of her somewhere.”

“My apologies, sir. It appears that there was a malfunction in the security cameras in and around the area where Ms. Lewis activated her alarm.” JARVIS sounded so perfunctory, but everyone in the room tensed.

“Does that mean this wasn’t some street crime? Someone targeted her?” Sam didn’t know Darcy all that well. He had just moved into the Tower a couple weeks ago, and spent a lot of his time bouncing between helping Steve deal with his ‘my best friend is back from the dead, and tried to kill me a bunch, and then saved my life’ thing, and volunteering at the local VA. She seemed nice, and she always made enough food for everyone when she was cooking for the scientists… and the food was always delicious.

Natasha’s phone rang and she put it on speaker.

“I found Darcy’s taser, and five unconscious guys. I think they were HYDRA, one of them looks familiar, but they don’t have any ID on them.” Clint’s voice sounded tinny over the phone.

“How did Darcy take down five HYDRA agents? Is she there?” Steve sounded confused. The gal - _woman_ \- who watched films with him and helped him catch up on pop culture, who made comfort food when he was feeling down, who listened to his stories of growing up without interrupting or pushing… she was not the type who could fight five trained men.

“Darcy isn’t here. Just one tased guy, and four bruised and battered guys. I kinda doubt Darcy beat them up though, some of these bruises are pretty big. Have you seen her hands? They are tiny hands.” Clint rambled a bit as he examined the unconscious men. “I could use some help rounding them up.”

“On our way.” Steve had his Captain America face on, as he nodded to Sam and Natasha. “Tony, see what you can dig up on the camera outage. Clint, keep an eye out. I don’t think Ms. Lewis would have left her taser behind voluntarily. If Thor checks in, keep him in the Tower until we know more.”

A chorus of assent sounded from the team, and they went to work.

 

* * *

 

Clint looked at the group of unconscious baddies sprawled on the sidewalk. Darcy had definitely taken out one of them with her taser, but there was no way she had beaten up the other four. She was a lot of things - clever, snarky, a really good cook - but a badass fighter wasn’t one of them. He was worried about her. Cap was right, she wouldn’t have left her taser behind voluntarily, and there was no way to know how many men had been there. If she had been taken, why did they leave all this evidence behind?

He heard one of the men start to moan just as Cap, Nat, and Sam pulled up in one of Tony’s cars.

“Hey guys. This one is waking up.” Clint beckoned them to the groaning guy.

“Wake up, мудак.” The four of them stood over the man, and Natasha prodded his side with her boot. The man’s eyes fluttered open, and got very wide as he realised who was standing over him. “Who are you, what are you doing here, and where is Darcy Lewis?”

The man was not prepared for Angry Black Widow. He weighed his options quickly, and decided to err on the side of not having her rip out his spleen.

“We weren’t told why. We were told she would be easy to snatch, that she wouldn’t have any backup. The guy came out of nowhere, he didn’t make a sound.” The man inched his hand for his belt.

“What guy?” Natasha stepped hard on the man’s fingers.

“I didn’t get a clear look at his face, his hair was in the way. He didn’t say anything, just started taking us apart.” Steve reared back a bit at this, and his eyes snapped to Natasha’s.

“What can you tell us about him?!” Steve’s voice was a mixture of hope and anger. Could it…

“Dark hair, longish? White guy. About his size.” The man nodded toward Sam.

“What about his arms? Was there anything strange about his arms?” Natasha moved her foot from his hand to his throat.

“He was wearing long sleeves…” He trailed off as he snapped his hand down to his belt, pressing the button that injected poison into his hand. “Hail HYDRA.”

“DAMN IT!” Steve ran for one of the other downed men, as did Clint and Natasha. Sam got his phone out to update Tony on the situation.

“This one is dead.” Natasha sounded disgusted. “So is the one Darcy tased.”

“Mine too.” Clint was angry. He should have been paying more attention. He knew there was a chance they were HYDRA, and that captured HYDRA agents often committed suicide.

Steve punched the sidewalk. Five dead HYDRA agents, and no idea where Darcy was.

“Natasha… do you think… I mean, it sounded like…” Steve was hesitant to voice his... hope? Fear?

“I don’t know, Cap. It could be. I don’t know why he would though. It’s not like he knows Darcy.” Natasha was confused and angry. Dead HYDRA agents would not help them find Darcy.

“What are you guys talking about?” Clint sounded angry. “Who?”

“Bucky. It sounded like he was describing Bucky.”

 

* * *

 

Halfway across Midtown, Darcy’s eyes fluttered at the smell of coffee, and Hardison made a triumphant noise as he got her iPhone to boot up.


	3. We need to work on our communication

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Darcy wakes up. Everyone is panicking.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yay new chapter! Now with more beta-reading! Everyone should thank secondalto for proofing this and offering suggestions... because they were good ones.

Days like this, Tony missed the suit. He wouldn’t change what he did, because Pepper was the most important thing in his life, but he missed being the one who was out doing things instead of waiting behind. Lewis was missing, and apparently someone who could take out half a dozen HYDRA goons had her. Wilson’s voice was still on speaker, and apparently Capsicle thought the mysterious Darcy-napper might be his not-so-dead-best-friend-turned-HYDRA-weapon. Awesome.

Tony stalked around the room, tablet in hand, trying to find something - _anything_ \- to help them figure out where Darcy had been taken.

Beep.

Tony and Bruce both whipped around to face the map of Manhattan, where the little green light indicating Darcy’s cell phone had just started blinking again.

“Guys, we’ve got her signal back. She’s halfway across Midtown. I’m sending the address to your phones. Looks like a hotel - I’ll let you know when I can narrow it down to more than the building.” Tony focused on his tablet, occasionally asking JARVIS to alter parameters on searches and trusting that Bruce would relay any relevant information that he or JARVIS threw onto the nearby screens.

“Sir, I have located video of Ms. Lewis being carried into the building from which her signal is now broadcasting.” A screen between Bruce and Tony flickered to a grainy monochrome video of a man carrying Darcy through the hotel lobby toward the elevator. His face was buried in her hair, with longish hair pulled into a ponytail, body clad in a flannel shirt and jeans.

“JARVIS, grab the best image of the guy that you can find, and send it to Nat and Cap’s phones. See if they recognize him.” Tony’s body went still as his mind was racing with reasons that Darcy needed to be carried through the lobby - most of them were not good. “I don’t care if it is Cap’s long lost bestie, if he hurts her…”

“Tony, her phone turned back on…” Bruce’s face was wrinkled in confusion. “If it was broken, then how did she get it to work? If she didn’t, because she is unconscious, then who did? Why?” Tony went pale with the implications.

“JARVIS, put me through to Wilson’s phone.”

 

* * *

 

Natasha was behind the wheel of the SUV they had taken from the garage at the Tower. Steve was in the passenger side, staring out the window. Clint was slumped in the back, grumbling about something to Sam. Natasha was focused on getting to the address as quickly as possible. If the Winter Soldier had Darcy, there was no way to know how long they would stay there, and what condition she would be in if they found her.

Steve was trying to run through scenarios and strategies for when they got to the hotel, but his mind was running in circles about why Bucky would have taken Darcy, if he was okay, if she was okay, if it was Bucky, or the Winter Soldier, or… well he was thinking in loops. The idea that it wasn’t Bucky who took her was a tiny voice in the back of his mind, and he didn’t know whether that would be better or worse.

Clint was feeling guilty. Mumbling to himself about how he should have known better, paid more attention to what was going on before the rest of the team got there. His game was off after all the crap he’d been dealing with, between Kate and Barney and getting back…. Natasha hadn’t been particularly sympathetic, especially since he was unavailable when their lives went to shit and covers were blown. Now Darcy was kidnapped, probably by Steve’s assassin-y best friend, and he let all the HYDRA guys get dead instead of feeding them to Natasha’s angry face, and Nat made him leave the Charger behind, even though he had just finished fixing her. Again. Sigh.

Sam was trying to get through Clint’s monologue of self-recrimination, but it seemed to be a lost cause. Clint was muttering something about pizza when Sam’s phone rang. Tony’s name came up and Sam put it on speaker.

“Yeah Tony, we’re here.”

“It’s probably a trap. We got a video showing Darcy unconscious in the lobby of the hotel, so she probably isn’t the one who turned her phone back on… so yeah. JARVIS sent the best still we could find of the guy to your phones. I’m sending you the blueprints now, looks like she is in the top half of the building.” Steve spun around to stare at the phone, Clint straightened up, and Natasha drove even faster.

“Thanks Tony. Keep us updated if you narrow her location more. We’re going to need eyes on her before we know what the best way to get her out is.” Steve got his Captain America face on, his jaw clenching even tighter. “Clint, how fast do you think you can get up to the roof of the building?”

 

* * *

 

At the smell of coffee, Darcy swum toward consciousness through a haze of pounding headache. She groaned, which was a terrible idea because it made her head feel worse, throbbing in time with her heartbeat, and decided that opening her eyes would be an even worse life choice… so she didn’t.

“Ms. Lewis?” Darcy stilled. That was not a familiar voice. What the hell was going on? She kept her breathing slow as her mind raced, trying to remember what happened. She was at Harry’s, had two beers and a ton of Johnny Cash, walked back to the… oh. Motherfucker.

“Please tell me that the smell of coffee and the fact that I am on a couch and not tied to a chair means that you are Flannel Guy? If this is some freaky HYDRA mindgame thing, I am just not up for it.” Darcy heard a high pitched snicker, and chanced cracking her eyes open. A slim blonde woman with a ponytail and a manic grin was staring at her, seated next to Flannel Guy. Flannel guy scowled a bit at Manic Blonde, and then looked back at Darcy.

“We’re not HYDRA, ma’am. Parker, go get her a glass of water.” Manic Blonde - whose name was apparently Parker - bounded out of Darcy’s line of vision, and Flannel Guy slowly held out her glasses. “I’d give you coffee, but I don’t know what sort of drug they gave you.”

“Fuuuuuck. Stupid HYDRA and their stupid kidnapping plans. Why would they even bother? I’m a fucking INTERN. Ugh.” Darcy tried to sit up as she put on her glasses, and her head spun. Flannel Guy put his hand on her shoulder to help her get more vertical without falling over, and Parker held out an unopened bottle of water. “Thanks. So, Flannel Guy, what is your deal? You go around rescuing people from evil shadowy organizations often, or was I a special case?”

“I saw them follow you out of the bar.” Eliot paused as she furrowed her brow and sipped at her water. “Why were they after you?”

“They weren’t. I mean, they kind of were, because they knew my name and stuff, but I was totes not the point of that. They are after my boss. And her friends. Speaking of which… why am I here with you, instead of with them? Because they should have shown up. Probably.” Darcy sipped at the water and checked out her surroundings. She was on a couch in a nice-ish hotel suite living room. In addition to Flannel Guy and Parker, there was a guy wearing headphones sitting at the breakfast bar area, tapping at a laptop and drinking an orange soda. They didn’t look like evil kidnappers, and they gave her water and a blanket, instead of a syringe full of drugs and whatever evil torture-y things HYDRA had in mind.

“I didn’t want to hang around with a drugged unconscious woman and the five guys I’d just knocked out.” Eliot watched her take stock of her surroundings. Definitely a civilian, but she was a lot calmer and more aware than a normal person would be. She barely flinched at Hardison’s presence, so she either knew he was there (doubtful, as he was being quiet for once) or she didn’t care.

“Hey! I totally tased one of those guys. So you took out like… four of them. Which is cool. Thanks for that. Being kidnapped by HYDRA is not on my bucket list. This is a way nicer kidnapping.” Darcy was mostly sure she wasn’t actually kidnapped, because she had her glasses and she could see her bag and… oh. “If I’m not kidnapped, can I call someone?”

“Your phone was in your back pocket during the fight, and you fell against the building. It broke. Hardison is working on getting it fixed.” Flannel Guy nodded toward the oblivious Orange Soda Dude with the laptop.

“Ah. Well that explains why no one came to get me.” … assuming they would have, she added to herself. It’s not that she didn’t think they would care, just that… well… she was kinda expendable in the grand scheme of things. She doesn’t do science or kick butt, she just makes sure they eat and picks out the movies. “So, Flannel Guy, do you have an actual name?”

“His name is Eliot!” Parker chirped as she sat down by Darcy. “I’m Parker and that’s Hardison.”

“Well, it’s nice to meet you Parker. I’m Darcy.” Darcy grinned at the excited blonde. “And thank you, Eliot, for saving me from what would have been a monumentally shitty experience.” She smiled at him, but it was a little more brittle, as the fact that she was almost snatched off the street by freaking HYDRA really started to settle in her mind. The only thing that stopped her from being disappeared and tortured by a rogue government agency was her Knight in Plaid Flannel here. Oh god...

Eliot’s eyes widened as Darcy’s breathing got shallow and her hands started to shake, Parker barely catching the water bottle as it slipped from her hands. Shock. He grabbed the blanket from where it had fallen around Darcy’s knees, draped it over her shoulders, and grabbed her hands.

“Breathe deep, Darcy. Slow, deep breaths. You’re reactin’ to the drugs and the fight. You’re safe here. Promise.” Eliot’s accent got thicker as he lowered his voice. Darcy’s blue eyes locked onto his own, and he slowed his breathing to where hers should be. “Just breathe with me.”

After a minute, Darcy shook her head a bit and let out a shuddering breath.

“Thanks. Usually I don’t freak out until much later, so I’m gonna blame it on the drugging thing.” Darcy shook herself a bit, but didn’t let go of Eliot’s hands. “So. Right. I probably need to call my boss, since I activated my emergency thing and they might be wondering about that.”

“Hardison, any luck with the phone?” Eliot, Parker, and Darcy all looked at the oblivious hacker. “HARDISON.”

Hardison was concentrating on some weird signal that a normal iPhone would not be broadcasting. It started when he got the phone to boot up, but it wasn’t tied to any of the normal functions of the device. He thought he almost had a handle on it when Eliot yelling his name startled him.

“What?! Man, I’m doing the thing with the phone!” Hardison pulled his headphones off and swung around, and was surprised to be met with three stares instead of two. “Oh. Hi.”

“Hello. I’m Darcy.” Darcy smiled and waved at the other man, recognizing the symptoms of being pulled from SCIENCE in the middle of something. “Have you gotten my phone to work?”

“Hey. Well… I mean, it’s on… but it’s not actually working. It’s pushing out some signal that I can’t figure out though.” Hardison hadn’t really looked at the woman when Eliot brought her in, but he found himself smiling back at her when she spoke.

“Oh. That means the guys probably know where I am. Which is cool. Maybe. It would be better if I could call them though. Can I borrow a phone?” Darcy felt a bit better that her emergency beacon was active, even if she wasn’t sure who - or if anyone - was coming for her.

The only number she had memorized was Jane’s, but that should be fine since she was in the lab with the Science Bros when she left them. Hardison handed her a cell phone, and she called her boss. As the phone rang, Hardison was drawn back to his laptop, and Parker went and got Eliot a cup of coffee. When the voicemail picked up, Darcy’s heart dropped a little, and Eliot squeezed her hand… which he was still holding. Huh. Jane’s voicemail was full, because she never checked it.

“Seriously Boss-Lady?!” Darcy almost threw the phone in irritation, but pulled back in time to set it down on the coffee table where Eliot was seated. “She isn’t picking up. I don’t… ugh. Hopefully someone will be around to pick me up, but there is no way to know who or when without my phone.”

“Parker, why don't you go look out for a search party while Hardison gets Darcy’s phone fixed.” Parker nodded, and before Eliot could say anything else, she disappeared into the air vent in the doorway behind the couch.

Eliot’s head snapped toward Darcy as she snorted at Parker’s disappearance.

“I have a friend who does that.”

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next chapter is already in the works (granted, mostly in my head). Please let me know if I should add anything to the tags.


	4. When worlds collide.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Everyone comes crashing together.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *blush* so much support for this! Thank you to my lovely beta, secondalto.

Clint’s stomach growled loudly as they pulled up to the hotel. Sam raised an eyebrow in his direction and Steve chuckled, the tension breaking for the first time since Darcy’s emergency beacon activated.

“Very stealthy, Barton. I’m sure the kidnapper appreciates the warning.” Natasha snorted a little as she reached into the glovebox and threw a couple of protein bars and a wireless ear comm in Clint’s direction. Clint snatched the bars and earbud out of the air, a petulant look on his face.

“All right. Hawkeye, get up to the roof and find an entry. When Stark can pin down Darcy’s location, I want to be able to come at the room from more than one direction. Keep your comm on, and we’ll keep you updated.” Steve passed an earbud to Sam as he put on his own.

Clint took a big bite of protein bar as he jogged to the side of the hotel building. Fortunately for him, the building had been damaged and had scaffolding most of the way up the side, so he didn’t have to climb the building face until the last few floors. He finished the first protein bar as he got to the top of the scaffolding, and tucked the wrapper into his front pocket. Clint quickly scaled the outer wall, using window ledges and the brickwork to get to the roof. A glance across the space showed a large ventilations system. Score.

On street level, Steve looked through the blueprints that Tony had sent to his phone. The top two floors were made up of suites, containing anywhere from two to four bedrooms each. The lower floors were mostly more generic hotel rooms, conference rooms, and kitchen spaces. Tony had narrowed it to the top few floors, so that meant she was in a guest space, and not a staff one. They would have to take the stairs or the elevator, and avoid the cameras in the lobby….

Sam’s phone rang again, apparently Tony had decided that was the number to call.

“She’s on the 15th floor. Second from the top. West side of the building. I’ll text you when I get a room number.” There was a click as the call disconnected.

“Hawkeye, did you copy that? Second floor down, west side.”

“Copy. I’m heading into the vents.”

“Nat, find us a way to the service stairwell that doesn’t take us through the lobby. I don’t want him to see us coming.”

 

* * *

 

Parker liked crawling through air vents. She knew it wasn’t Hardison’s favorite thing, because he didn’t like dust or small spaces or climbing up or jumping down… well, she liked it anyway. Ventilation systems were like a whole little world she had all to herself, with tiny windows showing other people lives. Also, it was a great way to sneak in and out of places, which was one of her favorite things ever.

She made her way to the central shaft so she could go up toward the roof. Parker was almost to the opening when she heard a scuffling noise above her. She slowly stuck her head out into the vertical space and looked up just in time to see something falling toward her face. She caught it on reflex.

“Aww… snack.” A male voice came from above her. Parker looked at her hand and saw a protein bar.

“Don’t worry, I caught it.” Parker chirped to the voice... the owner of which was suddenly visible. Apparently she had caught him by surprise - she heard a muffled exclamation and a scrabbling sound as a pair of boots, followed quickly by denim clad legs and a purple tee shirt covered torso, fell into her line of vision. The mystery vent traveller stuck his arms out and grabbed the edge of the duct Parker was in, quickly pulling his upper half into it and apparently using his legs to push himself out of the central shaft. He lay there, tense and wary, and stared at her. Parker held out the protein bar.

He jumped a bit as his stomach made another loud growling noise.

“Thanks.” The man reached out slowly and took the bar from her. “So… you come here often?” Parker grinned.

“I was heading up to the roof. Darcy said her friends would be here at some point to pick her up. I was going to go look for them.” The man’s blue eyes got wide.

“You have Darcy? Is she okay?” Parker smiled reassuringly.

“She’s fine. She freaked out a little earlier because she almost got kidnapped by HYDRA, but Eliot saved her and brought her here because she was unconscious. Who are you?”

“I’m Clint. Can you take me to Darcy?” The man still looked agitated.

“Sure.” Parker was only mildly concerned that this was not Darcy’s friend. If he were an actual bad guy, he probably wouldn’t have eaten the protein bar… and if she was wrong, then Eliot would beat him up and find out why he was after Darcy. Everybody wins.

Parker led Clint back to the hotel room. She dropped down into the room first, and Eliot looked at her quizzically.

“Parker, I thought you were heading up to-” Eliot stopped short and rose to his feet as he heard a growling noise from the vent. “What the-”

Eliot stared at the man in the purple tee shirt, who had dropped out of the vent and was eating half of a protein bar. The man held up his hands - one of which held the other half of the bar - and waved a bit in Darcy’s direction.

“Is this the friend you mentioned, darlin’?” Eliot raised his eyebrow at Darcy, who looked relieved at the sight of the man.

“Yeah. Hey Clint. Did they send you to check in on my signal?” Clint’s eyes got wide. His hand flew to his ear.

“Aww… earbud.”

 

* * *

 

Steve, Natasha, and Sam had just made it to the service stairs when they heard a sharp intake of breath and a thumping noise from Clint’s comm, followed by a slight whistling sound and a crackle of static as the signal cut out.

“Hawkeye?” Steve looked at Natasha’s emotionless face when there was no response. A tiny nod between them and they were both leaping up the stairs, Sam following as closely as he could.

Steve’s phone buzzed - Tony had found the room number. As he and Natasha made it to the 15th floor, they sketched out a quick plan for approaching the room. The door should be right next to the stairs, the kidnapper - _Bucky_ \- must have wanted exit options. Sam joined them, breathing hard.

“I’ll go in first, fast and hard. Nat next, using the distraction to clear more of the room. Your goal is Darcy. Get her out.” Steve’s face was pinched, his jaw hard. If someone had gotten the drop on Clint in the vents, they must be prepared for the rest of the team. That didn’t bode well for Darcy.

The three of them ghosted up to the door of the room holding Darcy. A nod from Sam and Nat, and Steve squared himself to the door. A quick breath, and he kicked next to the door handle, splintering part of the frame and sending the door crashing into the wall. He barreled into the room, using his size to the fullest, giving Natasha and Sam an opening.

He wasn’t really ready for what he saw. A black man in headphones was crouched half under the counter in the kitchen, peering around at him. A pale blonde woman was standing at the arm of the couch, with her hand on Darcy’s shoulder. Clint was standing further back, his hands raised, holding a… protein bar?

Right in front of him, arms loose, was a man with dark brown hair nearly brushing his shoulders. His teeth were bared, and his stance was combat ready. Steve’s eyes flickered between his shadowed but unfamiliar face and his arms - clad in flannel, naked to the elbow, and both of them flesh. Steve’s shoulders dropped a little with the realization that this was not Bucky - that Bucky hadn’t taken her.

“Steve?!” Darcy’s voice was a little shrill, and she was shaking. “Natasha? Sam? What… what are you doing?”

Darcy had let out a small shriek at the sound of the door crashing inward, and spun to see what was happening. Eliot had reacted instantly, putting himself between her and the threat. When she saw Steve, Natasha, and Sam bursting in, looking like the heroes they were, she was still shaking from the adrenaline rush.

“Darcy, are you okay?” Steve took a step toward her, but Eliot mirrored his movement, blocking the couch. “Did they hurt you?”

“Umm… no? This is Eliot, he rescued me from being kidnapped earlier. What is with the door kicking? There are less smashy ways to get into a room, y’know.” Darcy’s voice was still a little wobbly, and she hadn’t tried to stand up from the couch. Steve raised his hands in entreaty to Eliot, who relaxed a little now that no one looked to be ready to fight.

“Oh. My. God. That is Captain America. And Black Widow. Darcy, did I miss when you told us that your friends were the Avengers?” Hardison was slowly rising from his place near the breakfast bar, his eyes wide and his face starting to break out into a smile. “You know the Avengers personally?!”

“You didn’t miss it, because I didn’t say, Hardison. It’s not a big deal. They work with my boss and her boyfriend.” Darcy didn’t want to add that she didn’t think they were really friends.

“Wait. So you weren’t kidnapped? And Clint isn’t unconscious or captured or dead? Because it looks like he is eating a PowerBar.” Sam stood in the doorway, still panting a little from the run up the stairs. Steve’s eyes swung over to where Clint was standing just in time to see Natasha smack him hard on the back of the head, muttering in Russian. Steve was only catching a few words, but apparently Eliot understood as he snorted at the tirade.

“I’m fine. HYDRA - at least we think it was HYDRA - tried to snatch me off the street. Don’t ask me what they wanted, but they totally knew my name which completely freaked me out. I hit my emergency app and tasered one, which was awesome, bee tee dubs. Eliot saw them come after me and stopped them, but they injected me with something and I passed out and my phone broke and he brought me here. I woke up and tried to call Jane, because hers was the only number I knew, but she didn’t pick up. Then Clint came out of the vent with Parker, and you guys kicked the door down.” Everyone looked at Darcy, who shrugged at the attention.

“Okay, so you’re safe - which is great - but we don’t know why HYDRA was after you, or how they found you.” Steve sounded very serious, which made Darcy feel a bit like she was in the principal’s office.

“I got nothing. It’s not like I know anything. I mean, sure, if they wanted to know what kind of food everyone eats, or how to get Jane and the Science Bros to act like humans on occasion, or what is on your movie queue… but I’m not important.” Darcy found herself at the receiving end of very strange looks from everyone in the room. “What? I’m not a superhero. I’m not a scientist. I’m just the former intern.”

Natasha sighed - although, not out loud - and looked softly at Darcy. She was going to have to talk to the people in the Tower. This could not continue.

Steve looked at her, his head cocked to the side and his eyes narrowed. Then he shook his head a bit and shot Barton an irritated glare.

“Why didn’t you check in? If you were in here, and she was safe, what happened to your comms?” Clint quailed a bit at Steve’s glower, and mumbled something about snacks.

“It probably came out when he dropped his thing. Or when he fell.” Incredulous looks from Steve, Natasha, and Darcy flickered between Clint and Parker.

“He… fell?” Natasha’s voice sounded a little off, and Clint’s shoulders slumped further as he heard the restrained laughter in her tone.

“Yeah. He dropped his candy bar, and I caught it, and then he fell down a floor to where I was. He has pretty good reflexes.” Parker looked over at Clint. “Do you like to jump off buildings too?”

Natasha and Darcy snickered in unison, and Sam reached for his phone.

“Tony, we’ve got her, she’s fine. The… what? When? Okay.” Everyone stared at Sam as he stuffed the phone back in his pocket. “Apparently the video in the lobby went down about 2 minutes ago, and Tony can’t get any cameras on the area, just like where they tried to snatch Darcy. We gotta get back to the Tower. All of us.”

Hardison burst into motion, shutting down his gear, and grabbing the things that shouldn’t be left behind. Parker and Sam moved to help him, as Steve, Clint, and Natasha came together to work out an exit strategy. Eliot moved to Darcy, and kneeled down next to where she was still seated on the couch.

“You gonna be alright to move?” He searched her face for lingering effects of the drug.

“I’m gonna have to be. I might freak out again later though. Just FYI.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Shout out to chaos for totally calling a plot point in their review, and thus solidifying the line used in the vent meetup.


	5. Round Two

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> HYDRA is closing in, can the two teams work together?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> IT'S ALIVE! Sorry this took so long. I had hols with no internet or computer. It was a thing. It should be better now. Secondalto is my hero and you should go read all her things because they're awesome and without her my story would make no sense (much like my author notes).

The plan Steve had sketched out was simple - Steve and Natasha were in the front to push through any resistance, followed by Clint, whose goal was to secure the SUV and cover everyone as they made their way to the car. Parker was flitting back and forth between the front of the group and orbiting Darcy and Hardison, who were in the middle. Eliot stayed close to them, protecting the least battle tested, while Sam watched their backs.

Darcy was trying not to panic. It was working better than she’d hoped, really. Maybe it was the adrenaline, or being surrounded by superheroes and her saviour in flannel… it could also be the taser that Parker had slipped into her hand before they left the hotel room. It was the handheld kind, instead of the projectile one she was used to, but was very comforting nonetheless. The stairwell echoed with their footsteps, but fell silent as they grouped around the exit door.

Steve made eye contact with everyone; keeping silent, but making sure the whole group was as prepared as possible. Natasha glanced over her shoulder at Darcy, and lifted the corners of her lips in a reassuring look. Eliot swayed closer to Darcy, brushing her side with his own, while locking eyes with Hardison and Parker. At a tiny nod from Steve, the group tensed and rushed through the door to the alley beyond.

It was chaos.

There must have been at least two dozen guys in the alley. The SUV was barely visible on the far side of them. Steve, Natasha, and Clint burst through the center of the milling men, paving the way for the rest of the group to make it to the truck. Clint dove through the crowd, taking out two or three on the way to the roof of the target vehicle. He shouted as he reached the top… reinforcements were coming, and not on their side.

Eliot pushed Hardison and Darcy closer to the wall, halving the area he needed to defend. He could barely see Steve - Captain Fucking America - through the mass of men that had mobbed the blonde hero. He saw Sam out of the corner of his eye, taking up position so Eliot could start moving Parker, Hardison, and Darcy toward the car. Unfortunately, they had attracted the attention of almost a dozen of the newly arrived goons in tactical gear, coming up the alley fast from behind them.

“Move! Toward the car!” Eliot slammed his forearm into the throat of the first attacker, kicking out at his torso to try and make a space for the people behind him to start moving. He saw Sam take out two more, but HYDRA just kept coming. Clint was trying to make a hole for them to move while defending the SUV, but there were so many of them.

Darcy crept along the wall of the building, Hardison about a foot in front of her, and Parker leading the way. She had her hand on her borrowed taser, and her eyes darting between Clint on the top of the car, and Eliot. He was fighting off a dozen guys all on his own. Okay, probably not a dozen, but there were a lot. They just kept coming. Sam was holding his own, and she couldn’t even see Steve or Natasha anymore.

It seemed like the crowd was finally thinning when Clint let out a shout as he was pulled flat onto the roof by one of the new swarm of HYDRA agents. The rest took this as a sign to rush in… and apparently Darcy was still their target. Hardison and Parker pushed forward faster toward the car. Eliot was busy with the goons in front of him when one made to grab him from behind.

“Oh hell no!” Darcy took two steps away from the wall, and shoved the taser into the space above the man’s collar. He dropped to the ground twitching, and Darcy grinned ferally as she moved back toward Hardison and Parker. With Eliot and Sam guarding one side, Parker launched herself forward to help Clint secure the SUV. She landed on the roof in a crouch, and kicked at the HYDRA agent pulling on Clint’s arm. Between the two of them, they got the area around the car clear enough for Darcy and Hardison to make it inside the vehicle.

“Let’s go, Cap!” Sam called out to Steve, who was holding his own against an absurd number of HYDRA agents. Eliot looked up from his latest victim, in time to see Natasha appear next to the car, having launched herself off the shoulders of the man who had just fallen victim to her Widow’s Bite. He heard Parker make excited noises about the wrist mounted tasing weapons.

Natasha got behind the wheel, Clint and Parker swung into the open side door, both crawling into the back seat next to Hardison. Sam climbed in on the far side of Darcy, and Eliot was half in the seat next to her, the door still open. Apparently the remaining HYDRA agents noticed that their quarry was escaping, and decided to step up their level of force. Steve was sprinting toward the open passenger door of the car when Eliot saw one of the HYDRA agents point a gun at his exposed back.

The crack-pop noise of a fired weapon echoed strangely, the bullet missing Steve completely as the HYDRA agent stumbled backward.

“Everybody hang on.” Natasha’s voice was fierce as the car tires left rubber on the pavement as soon as Steve had a handhold in the car. He pulled himself into the seat, grabbing at the door when Natasha hit a corner without slowing down.

“Everyone okay?” Steve twisted in the front seat to check with the rest of the group, where he was met with various noises of assent. “Okay. Nat, get us back to the Tower.”

 

* * *

 

The ride back to the tower was quiet and tense, everyone still twitchy with adrenaline after all the excitement. Darcy found herself pressing slightly into Eliot’s side. It was… reassuring… which didn’t make any sense because they had legit only met like, half an hour ago. Apparently fighting baddies together was a good bonding exercise, which she sort of already knew because this was totally her life now. Granted, Darcy was more used to being fray adjacent than in the center of the action… maybe she should ask Natasha if they could step up the self defense lessons.

The group piled into the elevator to head from the garage to the labs. Parker was bouncing lightly on her toes, eyes cataloguing everything. Hardison had a look of stunned admiration as his head swung from the obvious tech to Captain America and back again.

Eliot found his eyes straying to Darcy. He had heard her exclamation during the melee and turned in time to see her grinning fiercely at the guy she had just tased, keeping his back protected. She had jumped into the fight to help him out… which he would have expected from his team, but not from the girl he had just met.

The group all stared at the opening doors as they were hit with a wall of noise. Tony’s frustrated barks, Bruce’s calmer interjections, and JARVIS trying to apprise the lab of the arriving elevator.

“TONY! What’s going on?” Steve cut through the din as he strode into the room, leading the pack.

“You’re back! Good. Wait. Who are those people? JARVIS?! Who are the new people?! Where’s Lewis? LEWIS! Are you okay?” Tony avoided Steve’s question as he grabbed Darcy by the shoulders and looked her over, Bruce crowding close behind.

“M’fine Tony. Minor kidnapping attempt, some non-consensual drugging, a timely rescue from a handsome stranger, Steve kicking down a door and Clint coming out of an air duct, another kidnapping attempt, and a car ride with Nat. Tuesday at work, right?” Darcy’s voice wavered a bit at the end - as strong as she had been during the ordeal, laying it out like that and being in a safe space… she started to feel the effects of her evening.

Tony squeezed Darcy a little tighter and narrowed his eyes at her explanation. He knew more than anyone how to cover up insecurity with brash rambling. He locked eyes with Steve and flicked his head toward the newcomers with a questioning eyebrow.

“Sir, the persons in question have been identified as Eliot Spencer, Alec Hardison, and… Parker.” Hearing the AI hesitate over the final name brought everyone in the room to a stop. JARVIS sounded almost… bewildered?

“Who is that?!” Parker’s eyes darted around the room, looking for cameras or where someone could be hidden.

“Was that… oh. my. god. That was JARVIS right? _THE_ JARVIS?!” Hardison looked like he might faint as he rushed forward toward Tony. “Mr. Stark, it is an honor to meet you. Alec Hardison. I am a huge fan of your work.”

“ _Hardison._ ” Eliot conveyed a lot with that word. Stop. Calm down. Move back. Hardison managed to tone it down enough for everyone to move forward into the lab.

“Tony. What were you yelling about when we came in?” Steve was worried. The first squad could probably be explained away as convenience… but they sent a major force after her, tracking her across the city. “And do you know how they knew where she was taken when the first group failed?”

“So here is what we know. They were HYDRA guys, we even ID’ed a couple of them from SHIELD files. Their tech support though… it was not what we’d expect from HYDRA. I have no idea how they were doing it, or who was doing it.” Silence met Tony’s words. Tony’s shoulders were taut with frustration. He was very uncomfortable with his lack of success. This is what he did, and he came up with nothing. “JARVIS and I are working on it.”

“Darcy, I’d like to do some tests. Find out what they gave you, if there are any long term effects.” Bruce cut through the tension, steering Darcy toward his section of the lab. Eliot started forward when she moved out of his reach, and his motion seemed to focus the rest of the group on the newcomers.

“Eliot Spencer. I’ve heard that name.” Natasha stood in front of him. “Why are you here?”

“Were on our way out. Happened to see her being followed.” Eliot held Natasha’s gaze with an implacable one of his own. He knew that his reputation in her world was likely not one of a man who would save a random civilian. “Couldn’t just stand by.”

Natasha was still staring him down when Clint made a strange noise behind her.

“Holy crap. You were at that thing in Pakistan. In… what… ‘09?” Eliot’s eyebrows shot up at that, and he peered more closely at Clint. “I might have been around there then. For the thing.”

“You the one with the bow?” Eliot’s voice sounded gruff, but less wary than before. He remembered extracting from the thing in Pakistan, and seeing what would have been an ambush had the guys not been sprouting arrows from their chests.

“Yeah. That’s my thing.” Clint smirked.

“That and air vents.” Parker piped up. The room’s focus shifted to her.

“Yeah. What is up with her JARVIS? Is Parker her first name? Last name?” Tony glared at the screen that was showing him a rudimentary file with few details.

“Sir, it appears that SHIELD considered recruiting her as an asset, but deemed her ‘too unstable’ for use. The file you see is everything regarding Miss Parker on SHIELD servers and elsewhere.” JARVIS sounded almost ashamed at his inability to give any more information.

“I only steal from bad people now, though.” Parker chimed in helpfully. “I almost stole stuff from you a few years ago, but the guy who hired me didn’t pay enough.”

That line of conversation was derailed as Bruce made an unpleasant noise from where he and Darcy were situated in his lab space.

“Tony! I need you and JARVIS.” Bruce looked angry, his eyes turning a little green around the edges. Eliot made a beeline for Darcy, who looked pale. The rest of the team grouped around, reaching for tranquilizers and lock down switches. “Whatever they gave her wasn’t only a knockout drug. I got a sample, but I don’t know what it is, or what it is supposed to do.”

“What do you need from me?” Tony was already falling into SCIENCE mode, and it made Darcy relax a little.

“I need to run more tests. I’m going to need you and JARVIS to take care of processing the results and checking against known toxins, and I need to know what was in the syringe. Do we know where it is?” Bruce had already taken a significant volume of blood from Darcy, and started to prep various aliquots for testing.

“It was caught in her sweater after the fight. It probably fell off somewhere between the fight and the stoop a couple blocks away where I tried to wake her up.” Eliot was looking at Darcy’s face, her complexion was turning a little grey, maybe from the blood loss, maybe from the panic.

“It wasn’t at the scene.” Natasha glanced between Darcy and Eliot. “We could go back and retrace your route.” Eliot went to move toward the door and Darcy made a small strangled noise and grabbed his hand.

“Walk us through it on the map. Cap and I can go.” Natasha’s reasoning was twofold - Darcy seemed to be more comfortable around the man, and Natasha wasn’t sure she wanted him at her back yet. Between Clint and Jarvis, the newcomers would be monitored. She and Steve launched into a murmured conversation with Eliot, then took off toward the elevators.

“I can help with the testing and data.” Hardison broke into the science confab, which paused momentarily before absorbing him into the group.

“Is there a kitchen? Darcy needs to eat something.” Eliot turned to face Clint and Sam. Sam nodded and jerked his head toward the exit. Eliot didn’t hesitate in sweeping Darcy into his arms yet again, following without a word. As this was the first time she was awake for the phenomenon, Darcy let out a startled squeaking noise, and flung her arms around his neck. She considered protesting, but she was feeling very dizzy after the blood drawing, and decided to just roll with it. Clint and Parker looked at each other, and in unison decided to follow to the kitchen.

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you, everyone, for reading. And reviewing. And leaving kudos. It gives me lovely warm fuzzy feelings and I appreciate it lots.


	6. Pancakes.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WHAT? A new chapter?!   
> Yes. Hello. I am not abandoning this! I am NOT! I will continue writing. It is slow going and my life got very crazy for awhile, but I will be updating. Promise. Thank you to everyone who has sent me encouragement.. because that is the reason I kept writing.

Darcy tried not to wriggle in Eliot’s arms as the five of them rode the elevator in silence. She was feeling distinctly like a damsel, which was strange and uncomfortable - not that she didn’t appreciate the saving, but being carried to the top of the tower seemed like overkill.

“I think I can handle walking to the kitchen.” She tried to keep the petulant note out of her voice.

“No sense in taking chances.”  Eliot’s arms tightened around Darcy. “They don’t know what is in your system, so we should try and keep your heart rate down.”

“Curse you and your logical logic.” Darcy huffed, which disguised the slight tremble in her voice. This was not how she envisioned her day going - she went out for a beer and some normalcy, and instead got attacked - twice - and injected with some mystery drug. She looked up at Eliot… and decided it wasn’t a complete wash.

The elevator slid to a stop, and Sam led them into the kitchen. Eliot grinned a little at the professional grade outfittings and set Darcy down on a stool at the breakfast bar.

“Stark doesn’t strike me as the sort of man who actually uses the kitchen. Who does the cooking around here?” Eliot scanned for ingredients in the refrigerator and the pantry.

“I do. Mostly. Bruce makes dinner sometimes though. Steve is only allowed to watch until he gets out of the habit of boiling everything when he cooks for groups. Clint and Tony live off coffee, smoothies, and powerbars. Natasha shows up for meals, but I think she has a hoard of snacks in her apartment. Oh! Sam has done breakfast a few days.” Darcy wracked her brain for other instances of people using the kitchen, and frowned a bit at the lack. “But… yeah. Mostly me. Apparently.”

“Eliot cooks for us. Otherwise Hardison and I would eat mostly cereal and orange soda.” Parker perched on the stool next to Darcy. “Hardison took a cooking class once, but he made things that weren’t really food.”

Darcy smiled a little, taking in Parker’s bright grin and Eliot’s good natured scowl.

“How do we feel about breakfast food? Eggs, bacon, maybe some waffles or pancakes?” Eliot glanced at the group before his eyes settled on Darcy.

“PANCAKES!” Clint and Parker turned to each other with glee at their simultaneous exclamation. Darcy’s smile got brighter, and Eliot shook his head while pulling out ingredients.

For a few minutes, it was fairly quiet in the kitchen. Eliot put Sam in charge of scrambling an almost obscene number of eggs. Darcy was measuring ingredients for pancake batter and pouring them into the mixer. Clint and Parker were in charge of making sure Darcy didn’t have to move from her stool to reach anything, and Eliot supervised while manning the griddle that was covered in bacon.

The meal came together fairly quickly, pancakes a lovely golden brown, crispy bacon, fluffy eggs, lightly sauteed peppers and onions for those that were interested. Plates were filled and silence fell as they all started eating.

“So are we going to talk about the part where Natasha was going to kill you with her angry face earlier? Because that seemed like a thing.” Darcy broke through the lull. Eliot’s face tightened, and he let out a sigh.

“I wasn’t… I did some bad things, for a while. I ran across her once, while I was doing a job. I was… retrieving an item… from a very bad man. Turns out he had made the wrong people angry, and Widow had been sent to pick him up. She watched me take out the man’s body guards, and when I went to… persuade… the man to give me the item, she… intervened. I got the item, she got the bad guy… but it was a tense few minutes. It wasn’t long afterward that I ended up working with Parker and Hardison. I don’t work like that anymore.”

Eliot looked tense. He liked Darcy, but she was a civilian… and his past was not comfortable dinner conversation for normal people. Clint, Parker, and Sam gave him understanding looks, but his eyes were focused on the brunette across the counter.

Darcy turned this information over and over in her head. Eliot had saved her, but so had Ian once. She didn’t want to be the weak link that someone used to get to the Avengers the way Ian had used her to get to Jane. Still… Clint seemed to be comfortable around him. Hardison and Parker seemed to be good people. She looked at Eliot and he seemed… nervous? Hopeful? Well, Darcy hadn’t gotten this far in her crazy life without living in hope. She smiled at him.

Eliot let out the breath he didn’t realise he was holding, and everyone resumed eating. Darcy was moving slowly, with careful chewing and measured movements, but he didn’t know if that was outside the norm for her. He watched Clint’s eyes dart from his rapidly emptying plate to Darcy and back. Sam was less subtle, dividing his attention between looking at Darcy in concern and at Eliot with a mix of understanding and consternation.

The silence was starting to verge on awkward when the elevator doors opened and a tall redhead in a designer business suit and high heels came barrelling out. Eliot was amazed at how quickly the woman crossed the floor in shoes that most people would struggle to walk in at all.

“DARCY! Are you okay? I got the alert, and JARVIS kept me updated, but I was in a meeting across town or I would have been here sooner.” Darcy’s eyes got wide and watery as the newcomer swept her into a hug and started making worried noises. Eliot’s mouth puckered into a frown in the face of Darcy’s tears.

Pepper Potts was a force to be reckoned with. Most people were aware of that in a vague way - she had worked with Tony Stark for years, took over as CEO of Stark Enterprises, and was obviously very competent, so she must be very good at what she did. People who knew her personally understood that Pepper’s real power came from how much she cared about people. Once you became important to Pepper, she would protect you in any way she deemed necessary. In Darcy’s case, it was often in the form of afternoon shopping and food sessions, where they talked about the absurdness of dealing with scientists.

“I’m okay. Ish. I totally tased some baddies though, and we need to make Tony make me a better taser.” Darcy was holding back tears, but when Pepper looked into her face, she managed a weak smile.

“Of course we will. I’m sure he has already started doing it.” Pepper hugged Darcy again, quickly but fiercely, and then pulled back to look at the rest of the people in the room. She had distantly noted that there were unfamiliar faces when she first came in, but now she looked at them properly. The man was frowning lightly at Darcy, with what looked like concern, and the woman was grinning at Pepper and sneaking glances at her shoes.

“Pepper Potts.” She held out her hand for the man to shake, and watched as he dragged his eyes away from Darcy. He gripped Pepper’s hand lightly, but firmly, and looked her in the eye.

“Eliot Spencer, ma’am.” The woman in front of him gave him the sort of assessing look that he had only seen on career officers and criminal masterminds. He held her eyes and she gave him a slight nod and a quirk of her lips.

“I’m Parker! How do you run so fast in those shoes? Sophie couldn’t even run that fast in those shoes.” Pepper turned a blinding smile onto Parker, and Clint made a muffled snorting sound.

“I have a lot of practice. It’s lovely to meet you, Parker. Now, how about you all fill me in on what has happened tonight?”

Pepper made herself comfortable with a plate of food and the group took turns recapping the events of the evening, trading off the narrative and piping in with observations.

“Seriously though, I need more tasers. The hand held one was pretty cool, but a little awkward to use. Nat is probably gonna put that in my training next.” Darcy piped up when they started talking about the escape from the hotel. She was mostly sitting back to hear everyone else’s version of events, partially so she could focus on not throwing up the food she had just eaten. The dizziness hadn’t gotten much better, but it hadn’t gotten worse, so she was counting it as a win for the moment.

“You aren’t wrong about that.” Natasha strode into the room, followed by Steve. “We found the syringe and dropped it off in the lab. Hopefully they will be able to do something with it. There was a complete lack of dead HYDRA goons where we left them, so whoever is after you is not keen on leaving a mess.”

Darcy paled a little at the mention of the syringe, and Steve came over to stand in front of her.

“We’re going to figure this out, Darcy. We’ll find them, and they won’t be able to get to you, okay?” Darcy nodded, her fear unable to hold out in the presence of Steve’s earnest face. Even if she knew he could make that face on command, like when he didn’t want to admit that he had totally drank the last of the milk out of the carton, and put the empty carton back in the fridge. Being reassured by Steve was… well.. it worked.

Natasha leaned on the counter and picked at Clint’s plate, while Steve grabbed one of his own and started piling it high in whatever food was in arms reach… which meant that nothing on the breakfast bar was safe. For a few moments, the only sounds were clinking forks and contented sighs.

“Sir requests that everyone make their way down to the lab immediately.” Darcy and Parker were the only ones who startled at JARVIS’s interruption.

“I’m not going to get used to that.” Parker grumbled.

Everyone stood up, and Eliot swung Darcy into his arms again. Steve shot the pair a curious glance, and Eliot caught his eye. Steve raised an eyebrow, Eliot gave him a solemn nod in return. Steve gave Eliot a stern glare, then nodded and gestured for Eliot to walk ahead of him.

“You don’t have to carry me again, y’know. I have legs.” Darcy looked up at Eliot’s unsmiling face.

“S’alright darlin’. I’m gettin’ really good at it.” Eliot smirked a little as they got on the elevator.

A muffled snort, followed by a dull thwap and an offended squawk, sounded behind them.

“Aww… Nat!”

 

* * *

 

Hardison was doing an excellent job of focusing on the data that Dr. Banner was sending him, and not FREAKING OUT because he was in Tony Stark’s personal lab. With Tony Stark. Who was TALKING to him. Which was not distracting from his focus. Nope.

“Hey Whiz Kid, where are we on the radiation analysis?” Tony flapped a hand toward Hardison from where he was trying to separate the components of the crap Darcy had been injected with.

“There is some biological stuff I am not even scratching the surface on… but there is also a… I mean… it looks like a signal that is transmitting irregularly on a shifting frequency. I’m having trouble isolating the transmission, but it can’t be dumping too much data at once. Probably just… oh. She’s been tagged. It’s like a really complicated locator beacon. If I can figure out the algorithms governing the patterns of transmission and frequency shifts, I can probably narrow down who could be picking it up. I mean, it’s requires some serious tech knowledge to make something like this, and I know most of the players.” Tony and Bruce both smirked at Hardison, who hadn’t even looked up from the screen.

“Make it happen, kid. JARVIS, see what you can do with that algorithm. Brucey, what’s happening on your end?” Hardison was only half listening as Bruce explained that there were compounds in syringe which looked like a somewhat unusual cocktail of sedatives, but there was also something that looked worryingly like a retrovirus.

Hardison tuned them out completely when he caught a section of code that looked familiar. He quickly pulled up a program he hadn’t had to use in years.

“JARVIS, can you bring up that transmission encoding again? And run it through the filter I just gave you?”

“Of course Mr. Hardison.”

Data scrolled over his screens quickly, and his mouth fell open at what he saw.

“Mr. Stark, I think we need to get everyone down here. I know who is picking up her signal - well I know who wrote the transmission encoding anyway.”

“JARVIS, get everyone from upstairs.” Tony moved from where he and Bruce were working to where Hardison was still staring at screens covered in data that was scrolling so quickly it looked like it was flickering. Tony split his focus between the screens and the way Hardison was working - thoughts of recruitment dancing through his mind.

The elevator doors opened silently and the occupants spilled out into the lab. Eliot set Darcy gently on a stool and stayed pressed up against her.

“Okay kid, what do you know?” Tony leaned back on the counter, and everyone else turned to face Hardison.

“It’s Chaos.”


	7. The past doesn't stay there

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I HAVE NOT FORGOTTEN. I will finish this story. I WILL. It might take me awhile. I can't promise how quickly updates will happen. But this chapter has been giving me fits for months, and now it is finished, and I have sections of the rest blocked out, and I will try. 
> 
> THANKYOU for all the comments. You don't even know. Every time there is a comment, I am all "ffs Remi go write right now" and now there is a chapter.

 

Darcy felt Eliot tense next to her, and… was that a growl? The rest of the room was silent in confusion. 

“What? What does that even mean?” Tony was making the very specific annoyed face that only happened when he didn’t know the answer to things. JARVIS changed one of the central screens to a picture of a brown haired man in his thirties with a neat beard.

“Sir, if I may. Colin ‘Chaos’ Mason is a self-proclaimed ‘black-hat hacker’ who is confirmed to have infiltrated the National Security Agency and Pentagon servers, and even attempted to gain access to your own systems on multiple occasions. His current whereabouts are unknown, but he was last seen in northern Virginia.” A picture of Chaos walking into a nondescript city building flashed up on the screen. 

“Also, he is a creepy jerk who tried to blow up Sophie.” Parker piped up from her perch on a lab table. “He’s basically the evil version of Hardison.”

The room was silent as everyone’s eyes swung toward the hacker. 

“What does he have to do with HYDRA thugs drugging Darcy?” Eliot’s voice was a snarl that Darcy could feel vibrate across where they were still touching. 

“The syringe had a bunch of stuff in it. Part of it was a knockout drug, but part of it was an electronic tagging mechanism. I parsed through the transmission algorithm and found-”

“HARDISON.” 

“-right. Darcy got injected with a GPS tracker that Chaos made. Basically.” Hardison looked apologetically at Darcy.

Darcy’s heart was thrumming rapidly and her breath was getting more difficult to catch. She’d been chased, drugged, carted unconscious over a chunk of the city, shot at, and in a high speed chase - and now she’d apparently been tagged like an animal. She could hear Bruce talking about what he’d found in the syringe, but it sounded like she was underwater, the words getting all hollow and blurred. Her vision started to swim with black splotches, and she slumped toward Eliot’s solid torso. 

Eliot felt Darcy’s breathing get rapid and shallow, and then she was falling into him. 

“ _ DARCY! _ ” Everyone in the room shifted toward them at Eliot’s shout. He scooped her up from where she was half slumped on the stool. “Dammit, Darcy… open your eyes darlin’.”

“Bring her here!” Bruce moved quickly to his section of the lab, where there was one of Tony’s comfortable space-age exam tables. Eliot moved her carefully to the table, the rest of the group ranged behind them. “JARVIS! I need a scan!”

Bruce checked the screen where JARVIS was displaying her vital signs. Her heart rate was still fast and her blood pressure was high, and her oxygen saturation levels were a little low.

“She’s just unconscious. I think she had a panic attack, but i’m worried about how the hormonal spike is going to interact with the stuff she was injected with. Like I was saying, in addition to the short term sedative, there was something that I think is some kind of retrovirus. It’s got the right structure, but there’s no way for me to know what it does without a lot more testing… which we might not have time for. The sedative kept her heart rate low at first - even through the fighting it seems - and keeping her as calm as possible was a good idea… but now she’s been flooded with adrenaline and norepinephrine, her blood pressure is too high, and I’m worried about what it’s doing to her system. JARVIS can help me test faster, but there’s only so much I can do to speed up biochemistry. I need to know what she was injected with, and why.” Bruce took a deep breath, willing the green haze that had started to fall over his vision to recede. Hulking out while setting up her IV would definitely not help Darcy.

“I might be able to help with that.” Hardison moves back toward the station he was using and began flicking through screens. “If JARVIS can help me isolate the pattern of the frequencies Chaos is picking up… I might be able to ping the receiver and find out where he is.”

“JARVIS, work with the whiz kid. Let me know what I can do.” Tony hadn’t gone far from where Darcy was laying on the examination table. His eyes darted between Darcy’s unmoving body, the screen with her vitals, and the quietly tense form of her new protector. Eliot Spencer was a bit of a mystery, although apparently he had crossed paths with the spysassins in a past life, and they didn’t want him dead for it. Which was probably an excellent character reference. Still… 

“So how did you manage to be in the right place and the right time to save our Darcy?” Tony cocked a hip on Darcy’s exam table and looked down his nose a bit at Eliot.

“Just saw a girl in a bar.” Eliot looked up at Tony, away from where he was holding one of Darcy’s hands in his own. “Buncha guys went after her, and I couldn’t… Ain’t right. Wasn’t going to let it happen if I could stop it.” 

“Tony, I’m sure Mr. Spencer only has the best of intentions.” Pepper pressed herself into Tony’s side and rested her chin on his shoulder, raising an eyebrow at Eliot and quirking her lips. Tony leaned into her and closed his eyes. Pepper was always better at people than he was… and she was scarier.

Eliot smiled slightly at the two of them, then glanced at where he was still holding Darcy’s hand. He didn’t know why he felt so… strongly.

“Darcy is -”

“Sir, Mr. Hardison and I have found something you may want to see.” JARVIS’s voice caused all the low murmurs in the room to fall silent. 

“We were trying to isolate the frequencies from the tag tracker, and we weren’t getting enough data, but then JARVIS noticed that some of the code in the tracker was similar to the code that was shutting down the cameras whenever Darcy was being targeted. JARVIS found a way to use the tracker signal to narrow down the backtrace of the camera shutdown… and we have a location on Chaos.” Hardison flicked his fingers across the screen in front of him, sending a map up to a larger screen in the room.

“That is an old HammerTech building. Ugh, in New Jersey. I don’t even know this kid and I already hate him.” Tony started searching for blueprints, schematics, and more detailed maps of the area. 

“Do you think he could be working with Justin Hammer?” Pepper looked at Tony, then Natasha. 

“Isn’t he supposed to be in prison?” Sam saw Tony tense up and start to grumble at the idea of Justin Hammer being involved.

“Damnit damnit damnit.” Tony’s mind was flailing in a dozen directions. Darcy. Hammer. Strangers. How was he supposed to keep everyone safe if he didn’t have all the information? “DAMN IT! It is Hammer. Shit.”

The map was now scattered with information on Justin Hammer’s release, pictures of trucks going into the building’s loading bays, and anything else Tony, Hardison, and JARVIS were finding that pertained to the situation. Natasha and Parker were murmuring to each other about infiltration options, flipping through blueprints. Steve, Sam, and Clint were talking force assessment and tactics. Bruce and Pepper stood next to Eliot and Darcy, quietly discussing the option of bringing in more medical expertise. 

The room was at a constant low buzz - tense, but focused - when shrill wailing from the medical bed rang through the room. Every head in the room snapped toward Darcy’s convulsing body and Eliot’s wide eyes. 

“Shit shit shit - hold her arm steady!” Bruce pulled open drawers and snagged a bottle and a syringe, quickly measuring out a dosage and injecting it into Darcy’s IV. “C’mon, c’mon, work.”

“What’s happening?” Eliot held Darcy’s forearm in one hand, and lightly gripped her fingers with the other.

“Her pulse spiked, her temperature is higher than I’d like, and the anti-convulsant isn’t working as quickly as it should. There isn’t a lot more I can do until we know more.” Bruce measured his breathing, trying to stay calm.

“We have to go. Now.” Natasha’s voice was quiet. “We’ll hash out the details on the way. Parker and I have infiltration covered. Suit up, we’re gone in 10. Sam, grab your wings.” 

Hardison looked conflicted as Steve, Sam, and Clint headed out with Parker in tow. 

“You stay here and keep digging. I can handle on-site electronics.” Natasha turned toward the door, then glanced over her shoulder at Eliot. “If you’re coming, get moving.”

Eliot looked down at Darcy, still shuddering, then up at Pepper. 

“Go. There isn’t more you can do here, but you might be needed there.” Pepper smiled gently at him. He nodded and jogged out after the rest.

 

* * *

 

Natasha strode into the armory, a slight twitch of her fingers the only indication of her disquiet. Eliot was close behind her, eyes narrowed and arms tense. 

“What can we get for you?” Natasha grabbed a few small explosives and new charges for her Widow’s Bites. 

“Don’t like guns.” Eliot’s eyes moved over the racks of specialized munitions, lingering over what looked like a collapsible bo-staff. 

Clint snickered from across the room, as he pulled on the top part of his uniform and slung his quiver back over his shoulder. 

“Don’t know if you’ve noticed, but guns aren’t exactly our go-to-style either. Grab that staff you’re eyeing before Parker figures out how to add it to her arsenal.”

Parker looked up at Eliot while her hands were still securing bits of who-knows-what to her borrowed outfit. 

“I’ve already got like, 3 different kinds of tasers. Does that stick thing have a taser in it?” Her eyes lit up, and Eliot could hear Clint, Sam, and Steve all chuckling. 

Eliot grabbed the staff, and Clint tossed him a uniform top. 

“So what’s the plan?” Eliot shrugged out of his flannel and pulled the uniform over his undershirt. “How are we getting in?”

Parker and Natasha smirked at each other, then turned in unison to Sam.

“What?”

 

* * *

 

Chaos walked back into the beautiful tech room he had convinced Hammer to provide him, all the power he could ask for at his fingertips and an unlimited supply of cherry soda. The tracker he’d given Hammer for… whatever… was pinging. He looked through the accumulated data, and saw that it had been activated for a while, and something was wonky with the signal.

“Holy crap.  _ Stark Tower?! _ That is so cool.” Chaos made sure that the location data was still going through, and started to run diagnostics on the signal. It looked like… interference? Oh. Someone was tracing the signal back to him. Fuck that. Chaos started his scrubber program, and grabbed a couple of sodas for the ride out of New Jersey.  He didn’t get paid enough to get on Tony Stark’s bad side, and didn’t plan on sticking around long enough for anyone to know he was here.

 

* * *

 

Tony watched via trackers and JARVIS’s video feeds as two of his armored SUVs made their way out of Manhattan toward Hammer’s building in New Jersey. He glanced over at Hardison, who was muttering to JARVIS about encryption algorithms and unpacking data streams. ‘Smart kid. I’ve never seen anyone take to my tech so fast.’

His eyes slid over to where Pepper was perched next to Darcy’s bed, holding her hand. This is what happens when he doesn’t think about consequences. He gave up his suits to be with Pepper, but without them, how was he supposed to keep her safe? Keep any of them safe? Even with his suit, what if she was too far from him when something happened?

When this was all over, when Darcy was safe - and he refused to believe she would end up anything but safe - he  _ would _ come up with a way to keep this from happening again.  
  


* * *

 

 

On a rooftop not far from Stark Tower, a dark figure traced the progress of the SUVs with the scope on a sniper rifle. Once he saw they were headed directly for the Lincoln Tunnel, he packed up his gear and headed for the street, and his motorcycle.

“Seriously, Punk? New Jersey?”


	8. Infiltration

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sensibly timed and spaced out updates? Nah. Instead, I have written a whole new chapter, and will post it immediately!

Eliot looked over at Natasha as she wove them through the last of the tunnel traffic, glad that he had gone with Steve in the first SUV rather than the one Clint was driving. He could just imagine Parker’s continued complaining over not being the one behind the wheel. Eliot had mentioned her penchant for aggressive driving while they were in the elevator down to the garage. Natasha and Sam had looked pointedly at a certain blonde soldier, while Clint had snickered at the twin expressions of indignation on Parker and Steve. 

Natasha grumbled a bit at having to drive slowly enough to not draw extra attention to themselves as they were passed by a motorcycle.

“You coulda let Parker drive.” Eliot smirked a bit at Natasha’s raised brow. “As it is she’s gonna be all upset about it.”

“I’m sure she’ll forgive me.” Natasha’s smile was somewhat unnerving as she swung the car through the less crowded streets in the Heights, aiming toward Kearney Point.

“She did seem excited about the infiltration plan.” Steve stuck his head between the seats. “Also, how did I draw the short straw?”

Natasha and Eliot glanced over and smirked in unison. Steve sat back just in time to avoid smacking his head on the side of the seat as Natasha took a turn without slowing down.

 

* * *

 

Bruce was glaring at the series of gels currently running, willing them to give him something useful. He could hear JARVIS, Hardison, and Tony discussing the security of the Hammer building on the other side of the room, but they were far enough that he couldn’t make out the details. He looked at the screen above his table, and checked Darcy’s vitals before glancing over to where she was laying still on the exam table. The anticonvulsants had finally started working… or whatever drug was in her system had stopped having that effect. There was no way for him to be sure yet. He returned to glaring at his gels.

Pepper was sitting next to Darcy, her bare feet hooked around the rung of the stool she commandeered from one of Tony’s workstations, her shoes discarded under the table. She had her phone in her right hand, her thumb flying across the screen, and her left hand was wrapped around Darcy’s. Pepper’s eyes flitted between what she was doing on her phone, to Darcy’s prone body, and back again, where they narrowed and her swiping got faster. 

Tony’s ears caught what sounded like a low growl from Pepper, and he swung around to see her thumb flying across her phone as she glared at the screen.

“Pep? Something wrong?” Her eyes snapped up to him, and he could see her forcibly relax her clenched jaw and tensed shoulders. 

“Just… trying to track some things down. Nothing that can’t be fixed.” Her gaze softened as she looked back down at Darcy. “I hope.”

 

* * *

 

Justin Hammer strode out of the elevator into the research laboratory, whistling to himself with his hands shoved in his pocket. 

“Hey Doc, how’re we lookin?” He walked up to the table where a balding brown haired man in grey slacks and a white lab coat was adjusting several knobs on a complicated looking machine. There was a large metal box with various clear tubes of liquid going out of the side, and knobs on the front to adjust the flow through the machine. The tubes went out of the side and into another box with even more knobs and switches on the front of it. That machine made a somewhat ominous hissing and whirring noise, and a single thin tube pulsing with cloudy yellow-green liquid came out of the far end where it was connected to an IV line… which led to a body on an exam table.

“Stable for now. I cannot do any more without the subject in hand. I thought we would have them by now.” The man looked up at Hammer, his rounded face carrying an expression somewhere between worried and irritated. “Do we have any news?”

“There was a complication, Doc. Don’t worry about it! The locator thing was working so I sent a better team to the coordinates. I’m sure we’ll have our guest here in no time!” Hammer patted the pasty scientist on the shoulder and headed back for the elevator.

“Let me know if anything changes on your end.” Hammer pointed to the figure on the exam table as the elevator doors closed.

“Right. Okay.” The frazzled scientist watched the doors close, and braced his hands on the table. “Still a better job than my last one.”

 

* * *

 

Parker flung her arms out to the side and tilted her face up to the sky. This was amazing. Jumping off buildings, jumping out of planes, nothing compared to this. She shifted her weight into the turn and had to remind herself not to squeal in excitement at the way the sky twisted above her.

“Dammit will you hold on! Scraping you off the parking lot will NOT be stealthy!” Sam Wilson was asking himself, again, how this became his life. It started by accidentally running with Captain America, and now he was flying above New Jersey with a small blonde woman perched on his back.

“Hardison, can you make me wings like this? I need them.” Parker put her hands through the straps on Sam’s shoulders and leaned forward to help balance their weight for the drop toward the roof. 

“This kind of engineering isn’t my thing, babe. You’ll have to convince Tony.” Hardison’s voice came through everyone’s earpieces, and Tony’s chuckling was not far behind.

“We’ll talk when you get back. Now, from what we can tell from the satellite images the roof should be clear. We only have external feeds, so you’ll need to get into a networked computer before we can get into their security cameras. Hammer may be incompetent, but unfortunately this Chaos guy is not completely stupid. Parker should be able to get in through the roof and then Sam will go back down to get Clint. Parker, get in and get to a workstation so we can get Steve, Natashalie, and Eliot through the doors. Sam, call it when you’re ready.” Tony’s voice was less flippant than they had come to expect over comms. Steve found himself wondering just how worried Tony was about Darcy.

“Go.” Sam and Parker dove toward the roof, Parker almost flat against Sam’s back with her hands near his shoulders and her feet on his hips. Sam pulled straight up with 15 feet left and Parker dropped clear, landing crouched between an electrical box and an air vent. Sam was already out of sight headed back to the empty lot two streets over for Clint, and Parker immediately scanned for security.

“I’ve got at least three cameras covering the roof, and I can see two armed guards. It looks like they are scanning the nearby rooflines. Keep out of sight until I can bypass the roof cameras.” Parker kept low as she moved around to the front of the electrical box, and popped it open as quietly as possible. 

“Who the hell puts trip sensors on their roof electrical boxes!? Plan A is burned, go to Plan B!” Parker clipped through the wires that she was  _ mostly  _ sure powered the roof cameras. “The cameras should be down, but they’re gonna know someone is up here.”

The clang of the stairwell access door opening rang across the rooftop, punctuated with hushed words and footsteps. Parker moved as quickly as she could behind one of the air vents, and she could hear the squeal of tires in the parking lot with the arrival of the rest of the team. 

“Parker, try and get in through the air vent, the parking lot is about to get busy.” Steve rolled out of the still moving SUV a couple dozen heavily armed people poured out of the entrance. Clint was already crouched on top of his stopped vehicle, bow out and pointed toward the crowd. Sam landed next to him as Eliot and Natasha took up positions on either side of Steve, using the two SUVs as flanking cover. 

The unit in front of the HammerTech building took up defensive positions, and Steve could see one of them reporting into a radio. 

“Clint, stay ranged as long as possible for cover fire, call the layout. Sam, thin the herd. Nat, Eliot, I’ll punch through and get you to the doors. Questions?” Steve glanced to either side as Eliot and Natasha took out their weapons of choice.

“Let’s go.”

 

* * *

 

Parker stood silently next to the air vent as all five guards on the roof moved to the side of the building where the fighting was underway. She heard one of them swear, and tell the two next to him to get inside and call for backup. The leader then told the other two to keep sweeping the roof, and unstrapped a rifle from his back. 

“Hey Cap. No elevator to jump out of this time.” The man knelt down and stabilized his rifle on the roof ledge. Parker crept forward once the two other guards were out of sight, although she could still hear their clomping footsteps on the gravel of the roof. 

The sniper put his eye up to the scope, and Parker knew her time was up.

“Hey!” She swung one of her baton tasers at the man’s head as it snapped up from the scope. She kicked out at his hand where his finger was on the trigger guard, and heard it snap under her boots. He fell to his side and swung his legs to try and trip her up, she dodged and stabbed him in the neck with her taser. He was unconscious and lightly twitching in seconds, and Parker looked down at the fighting in the parking lot. Steve was in the center of a group of at least a dozen men, but it didn’t look like any of them had guns. Sam was swooping in and taking out groups with his fists and wings, and Clint was discouraging those who kept trying to get back in the building. Natasha and Eliot must already be inside, making their way to the lab levels.

Too late she heard footsteps behind her as one of the roof guards came running. Parker barely dodged his first swing, but managed to grab the outstretched arm and pull the man off balance. She kept ahold of his wrist and used his momentum to push him toward the ground. She tried to activate her borrowed Widow’s Bite, but he had both hands around her arm and she’d just electrocute herself. Parker got her legs around his throat to choke him out, immobilizing his arms with hers so he couldn’t get out of her hold.

“HEY!” The other guard came around a large vent and started running toward where Parker was still trying to get the floored guard to pass out. 

“Shit shit shit shit PASS OUT ALREADY!” Parker pulled her thighs together tighter and struggled for an idea. 

The guard was only about 3 steps away when a knife handle sprouted from his chest, and he stumbled, looking confusedly down at his front. He then caught sight of something behind Parker, and his eyes widened with fear.

“What the -” Another man came from somewhere behind Parker and elbowed the stabbed guard in the face while pulling out the knife.

“You got that one doll?” The man’s voice was a low grumble. He was about the same height and build as Eliot, with bits of his longish brown hair falling out of the bun on the back of his head to stick to his face. The hand not holding the knife was s _ hiny _ . Like... it was made of some silvery metal that Parker didn’t recognize. 

“Oh. Yeah.” The man had fallen unconscious while Parker was distracted by the mysteriously appearing not!Eliot. “Thanks for the whole… stabbing that other guy thing.”

The man’s mouth quirked a little at one side.

“Seemed like the thing to do. You gotta get inside?” The man shrugged his shoulder toward the stairwell door. Parker looked at him, then the unconscious guards, then down at the one he’d stabbed. Did she leave him up here with weapons? If he were a bad guy, wouldn’t he have just killed her already?  “I’ll stay here and watch Stevie’s back.”

Parker narrowed her eyes at him, then nodded and sprinted for the door. 

Bucky watched her go, then picked up the tasered guard’s rifle.

“Damn, Punk, what are you into?” He brought up the scope and looked down at the melee below, making sure that Steve was not in more trouble than he could handle.

 

* * *

 

“Sir, it appears we have a building breach.” JARVIS interrupted Hardison and Tony as they tossed bits of code back and forth between screens. “Through the secondary garage it seems. Armed men in the stairwells. They are attempting to reroute elevator controls.”

Tony’s head snapped over to where Pepper was now standing over Darcy, and Bruce was breathing deeply next to his lab table. 

“Give me a visual on the baddies, J.” Several camera feeds flooded the nearby screens, and Tony glanced over them. “Damn. Look there.”

The video Tony pointed to zoomed in to some equipment being carried by three of the intruders

“That is probably enough firepower to get them this high. Even if I locked down the tower, they could just bust it open until they got to us. Damnit.” Tony moved to another workstation, quickly flipping through screens. “I can slow them down, but I don’t know if I can stop them.”

“If it comes to it, I can stop them. But I’d rather not let it get that far if possible.” Bruce moved forward and stood next to Tony. 

“I’ll keep that in mind, Brucey.” Tony’s eyes didn’t stray from his screens.  Pepper was on her phone, but Tony wasn’t focusing on anything other than how he’d let people get this far into his tower. How he'd left them unprotected. 

“Sir. I believe I may have a solution.” JARVIS’s voice cut through Tony’s internal monologue of self recrimination.

The elevator doors opened.

“What has happened in our absence, Tony?”


	9. Fighting the same fight.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Fighting here. Fighting there. Fighty fight.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A WILD CHAPTER APPEARS.  
> My continued productivity is mostly the fault of witchbarnes, who has given me a new plotbunny.. but I refuse to write that story until this one is finished. So now there is more incentive. I'm already into the next bit, but my week is going to be hectic, so it might be a little longer for the next one.

Hardison gaped a little at the figure stepping out of the elevator. He’d known that Thor was… well…  _ Thor _ . But still. He was… majestic. And alien… and angry looking and talking to him  _ right now  _ **_ohmygod!_ **

“I’m sorry, what?” Hardison tried to focus.

“You are unknown to me, and I see my dear friend lying unconscious. Explain yourself.” Thor pointed at Hardison with Mjolnir. 

“Cool it Goldilocks. Whiz kid here is on the level. Darcy got caught by HYDRA, and then rescued by one of his buddies. She was drugged, and they got her safe. Cap, Widow, and the Bird Boys went to get her back, and now those four and two of our new friends are off to find out what Darcy got hit with.” Thor relaxed as Tony explained, and looked over to where Jane was hovering over Darcy and talking with Pepper. 

“In other news, the Tower is being attacked and your timing is excellent.” Tony gestured to the video feeds showing various groups of people in tactical gear making their way through the building. 

“Sir, I am exp-... -munni-... -ure..” JARVIS voice sounded staticky and disjointed, then the lights flickered and died. 

“What the hell?! They can’t do that!” Tony was not panicking. Nope. Even though the only way they could have interrupted the power was to cut hardlines up from the arc reactor. Which was really really bad.

“Jane, hold my phone.” Pepper shrugged out of her jacket, and her hands started to glow an orange-red. Jane used the flashlight app on Pepper’s phone to help illuminate the room. “Thor, you go down and see if you can’t stop them. I’ll be on this floor in case they make it that far. Bruce?”

“Yeah. Last line of defense.” Bruce carefully folded his lab coat and took off his glasses, following Pepper and Thor toward the door that led to the stairwell.

Tony watched them go, jaw clenched. Here he was, again, waiting behind while people he cared about were in the line of fire. There had to be something he could do.

Jane stood over Darcy, unknowingly mimicking Pepper’s earlier position, phone in one hand and Darcy’s limp fingers in the other. Tony and Hardison looked at each other in the dim light.

“Man, Eliot is gonna be  _ pissed _ that the comms are down.”

 

* * *

 

Natasha and Eliot stepped over the unconscious bodies of the last two guards between the front doors and the elevator. Eliot reached over toward the panel, but Natasha was quicker and smirked as she pressed the ‘Up’ button. They stood side by side, Natasha facing the elevator doors, Eliot facing the lobby covered in flattened HammerTech employees and the front doors.

“Seems like a lot of trouble for a girl you barely know.” Natasha tilted her head to the side so she could catch Eliot’s reaction.

“She…” Eliot shook his head a little as he thought back, even though it had only been a few hours. “I was gonna talk to her at the bar, but she looked like she’d had a rough day. She must be a regular, the way she talked to the bartender. She didn’t seem interested in company, so I left her alone.”

The panel made a soothing beep noise as the silver doors slid open, and the two of them stepped into the elevator then off to the sides, Natasha spinning to face the closing doors. 

“She was awful brave. I could hear how scared she was, especially when they knew her name - she told me after that’s what tipped her. She kept fighting until the drugs pulled her under, and didn’t panic when she woke up in a strange place. She’s… different.” Eliot shrugged a little. “She doesn’t seem to be brought down by all this, although she wasn’t sure y’all’d come for her.”

Natasha flinched a bit at that. She’d known Darcy was feeling inadequate, surrounded by the other residents of the tower, but this sort of reassurance was not her strong suit. When this was all settled, she’d talk to Pepper about how to rectify the situation.

“That’s on us, not on her.” Eliot nodded at her admission. They both fell silent as the doors opened to the first of the lab floors. There was a short dark hallway leading to glass doors, with a massive set of monitor screens along the visible wall. The room was fairly dim, the light from the elevator providing most of the illumination. Natasha stepped forward into the hallway, and Eliot slid his foot forward to keep the doors from closing. 

“Hardison, I have what looks like Chaos’ base of operations. Seems to be shut down.” There was silence on the other end of the comms. Natasha tilted her head slightly. “Hardison?”

“Dammit Hardison!” Eliot clenched his fists at his sides. Of course the comms are down. When Hardison is alone in a building that regularly gets destroyed by something, and most of the firepower is here with him.

“JARVIS?” Natasha’s voice was steady, but she was very worried. The comms had been running through Tony’s lab systems, which meant that the interruption was a very bad sign.

“Ms. Romanova, there is an evolving situation at Stark Tower. There are armed individuals making their way up toward Mr. Stark’s laboratory. They seem to have cut the power cables, causing me to be unable to communicate with the tower systems above the 12th floor. Before I lost contact, Prince Odinson and Dr. Foster had just arrived. In the meantime, I have reconnected your earpieces to one another.” Natasha stiffened. Breaching the tower while most of them were getting into HammerTech? Couldn’t be a coincidence.

“Cap? You catch that?” Natasha and Eliot waited in the dim hallway, elevator still open.

“Yeah. We gotta make this fast. You two split up - Nat take the computers, see if JARVIS can help you any, Eliot find the bio labs and see if you can find some information about what they gave Darcy.” Steve was a little out of breath, and they could hear the occasional thump from the fighting. 

“Parker! Check in.” Eliot hadn’t thought anything of her silence, but now that he knew Hardison was in trouble…

“Kinda busy. Goons in stairwell. Making my way downstairs.” Parker’s voice was a little strained, but Eliot knew she would have asked for backup if she needed it.

Eliot nodded at Natasha and stepped back into the elevator. The doors closed as he saw her pushing through the glass doors toward the computer terminals. Eliot rode up to another lab level they had identified from the blueprints, sliding back to the side of the elevator so he wouldn’t be easily visible once he reached the next floor.

The doors opened onto a brightly lit laboratory. Someone with thinning wiry hair and wearing a white lab coat was leaning over an examination table, their back to the open elevator. Eliot could just barely see their shoulder and the back of their head, but could hear them talking to themselves. Apparently the person hadn’t heard the elevator arrive, which made Eliot’s life a lot simpler. He stalked out of the elevator, making sure to keep himself out of the person’s line of sight, while taking stock of the things in the lab. He’d made it about a third of the way around the room when he realised that the person in the lab coat was leaning over a sheet covered  _ body _ .

Eliot ghosted up to the scientist, who was still muttering. 

“Of course Kenneth. This was a great idea. Hammer isn’t as bad as HYDRA, right? At least I’m not going to get strapped to a table and tortured. Probably. He’s gonna blame me if this doesn’t work, even though I was supposed to get the samples hours ago.” Eliot made sure the guy wasn’t holding anything, then pulled down hard on the collar of the lab coat, twisting it to firmly trap the scientist’s arms.

“WHAT THE-” Kenneth started to shriek and struggle, but Eliot spun him up against an equipment table covered with boxes and tubes. He kept a hold on the wadded fabric trapping the scientist’s arms behind his back, then pressed his forearm against the man’s throat. Hard.

“Calm down, Kenny. I’m just going to ask you a few questions. If you scream, Imma have to make you stop, understand?” Kenneth gurgled a bit and tried to nod.

“First, we’re going to move that sheet and find out who you’ve got on that table, okay?” Kenneth tried to nod again. Eliot pulled him upright by the hand he still had fisted in the man’s lab coat, turning around so they were facing the body on the lab table, Eliot’s forearm still held lightly over the scientist’s trachea. “I’m gonna let your arms loose, and you’re gonna move the sheet. Gently.”

At Kenneth’s stilted nod, Eliot loosened his grip on the bunched up fabric and pulled it free of the man’s arms. Kenneth flailed his newly freed hands, grabbing onto Eliot’s arm where it was threatening to choke him.

“No. Move the sheet. Careful now.” Eliot pressed his other hand hard into the center of the man’s back. Kenneth gagged at the compression on his windpipe, but dropped his hands down toward the table. He tried to grip the sheet without moving his body, and pulled it carefully toward himself.

Eliot watched the sheet slide away from the head of the covered figure. His eyes went wide with shock and confusion as the person on the table was revealed. 

“Cap. Widow. You should probably get up here.” Eliot’s voice was carefully controlled, as he looked down at the unmoving, unbreathing body of Darcy Lewis.

 

* * *

 

Parker was weaving her body through the handrails in the stairwell, dodging around black clad security goons. This had been a crap job since she tried to open the electrical box on the roof. She heard Eliot over the radio, and acknowledged him as she swung around another flailing bad guy. She kicked him hard in the chest, knocking over the two behind him as well. The thud of their bodies hitting the concrete landing almost drowned out the noise of more of their comrades charging up the staircase. Parker glared at the three guards crumpled on the landing, and slunk through the door on the floor above them. They were low on intel, swimming in henchmen, and now Hardison wasn’t on comms. Parker was tired of this nonsense. She was going to find some answers so they could get the hell out of here. 

She was only a couple floors down from the roof, and the short hallway led directly to a small lounge room. There was a bathroom on one side, the elevator, and another short hallway across the room where she could see a half open door next to a desk. There was music echoing from inside, and she could hear someone talking.

Parker peeked through the doorway, and saw a man in a shiny grey suit and dark rimmed glasses talking on the phone.

“Jesus Rumlow! I told you to go get the girl, not piss on Stark’s toys. Get whoever is left out of there, make sure they don’t know-” the man stopped midsentence as shrieking static burst from the headset. “Great. Just great. How is he always messing with my plans?”

Parker used the man’s distraction to sneak up behind him, and tasered him. He cried out as he shook, but Parker kept the taser tight to his neck until he passed out, falling to the floor. She pushed him out of the way so she could get to his keyboard, trying to access his computer. She tried several things that Hardison had taught her, but the screen stayed stubbornly unhelpful. She was about to check in on comms when she heard Eliot’s voice, asking for backup. 

“Hey. I got some guy in a fancy suit, unconscious in a big office.” Parker nudged the guy with her foot.

“Eliot, I’m coming to you. Clint and Sam, head back to the tower and find out why comms are down. Nat, how is the tech lab?” Steve sounded a little winded over the radio.

“I’ve gotten what I could, but most of it was already scrubbed. This Chaos guy must have known we were coming. I’ll go up and help Parker.” The man at Parker’s feet groaned, so she used some of the thin wire she grabbed from the armory and bound his hands.

 

* * *

 

Steve was getting tired of this. He was  _ trying _ not to kill anyone, but there was a fine line between punching too hard, and having knock down the same guy several times. Clint was herding them and Sam was keeping the groups fairly sparse, but most of the hand-to-hand was falling to Steve. Now that his backup was heading back to the tower, he was just going to have to get through to the building and hope for the best. 

Sam landed next to the SUV Clint was perched on, and they both looked at him as they climbed into the vehicle. Steve nodded at them and punched another of the assorted henchmen, before turning to make a path to the HammerTech entrance. He was almost to the doors when he heard the echo of a gunshot behind him, and spun around to see one of the men on the outskirts of the horde of fallen goons slipping backward over one of their comrades, the gun in his hand swinging wide. 

“Second time tonight they’ve missed me. Someone must be watching over me.” Steve shook his head as he pushed through the front doors of the building.

On the roof, Bucky Barnes kept watch on the fallen henchmen to keep the escape route clear.

“Til the end of the line.”


	10. Kenneth Turgeon makes bad choices

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here lies comic book science. Which was a bitch to write. Also, suddenly team!fic... or not suddenly. There is a lot of ensemble happening, which is also complicated to write. And I am working without a beta, so if anyone sees any glaring holes I should fill, please let me know.
> 
> Also, I refer to many things as parties which are... not technically parties.

Three men in combat gear slammed hard into the wall, cracking through the sheetrock and crumpling unconscious to the ground. Thor held out his hand and Mjolnir came flying back, knocking down the final standing intruder and crushing the last bit of heavy equipment the trespassers had carried. He stood over his fallen foes for a moment, making sure they were all thoroughly vanquished, then turned to the doorway behind him where Ms. Potts was standing guard. 

“Is this the last of them?” He swung Mjonir lightly in his hands and stepped over a large chunk of destroyed machinery.

“As far as I can tell. JARVIS? Anyone left below this level?” Pepper leaned against the open stairwell door, her hair barely mussed but several bodies at her still bare feet. 

“No, Ms. Potts. Several intruders retreated to their vehicles and exited the premises during the fight. I have contacted Mr. Stark via your mobile device and notified him that the threat has passed. He would like me to inform you that he and Mr. Hardison are on their way down to the 12th floor to attempt repairs. Prince Odinson, Dr. Foster would like you to make your way back upstairs.” Thor nodded at Pepper and began bounding up the stairs. 

“JARVIS, inform the team that the Tower is secure. Any word on -” Pepper was interrupted by the arrival of Sam and Clint. “Oh. Hello boys. You missed the party.” She gestured at the hallway filled with unconscious people. “But now that you’re here, you can help me take out the trash.”

“What the hell happened? We lost comms, and then JARVIS said there was a Tower breach.” Sam stood next to Pepper in the stairwell, while Clint walked down the hallway, prodding at various things with his boot.

“Hey. This is SHIELD tech. Or HYDRA tech. Are we still calling those two different things? Anyway, this is definitely that. Infiltration tech - heavy stuff. Do you think they were here for Darcy?” Clint picked up what was left of a large piece of machinery, inspecting the damage done by Thor and Pepper. 

“They were not very forthcoming about their motives, and not all of them are still here. Apparently they were unprepared to deal with an irritated Asgardian.” Pepper shrugged and began helping Sam restrain the prisoners.

“Yeah. Or they thought you were still in your meeting.” Sam grinned at Pepper, and she shoved at his shoulder as she picked her way across the debris strewn floor. “We can clean this up if you want to go back upstairs. Any change with Darcy?”

Pepper slumped a little and shook her head.

“No change. I’ll have JARVIS update you if anything happens. When these guys are all tied up, there should be a police presence downstairs to remove them. Thanks guys.” Pepper moved quickly back toward the stairwell.

“I can’t decide if she is scarier with the pointy shoes, or barefoot.” Clint murmured after Pepper was out of sight. “Seriously, I can’t decide which asskicking would be worse. With shoes or without.”

Sam snorted, and the two of them quickly bound the rest of the henchmen.

 

* * *

 

“What have you got, Eliot?” Steve strode out of the elevator to where Eliot was standing motionless, his arm pulled tight around the throat of another man. He looked down at the metal table in front of them. “What the  _ hell _ ?”

Eliot was still staring at the body on the table. This was officially very outside the normal scope of his day. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Steve’s face harden in anger, then had to quickly move back as the scientist was wrenched out of his grasp and suspended a foot off the ground by an enraged supersoldier.

“What is this? What have you  _ done _ ?” Steve’s voice was cold, and his hands were trembling from fury and fear. The scientist was pale and shaking. “ _ Tell me _ .”

“I’m just a scientist! I didn’t do-” One of Steve’s hands wrapped around the scientist’s throat, cutting off whatever excuses he was about to make.

“Don’t lie to me. Why is -  _ how _ is my friend lying dead on that table, when I left her unconscious in one of the most well protected places on the planet?” Steve was having trouble not crushing the man’s throat, his fingers spasming with fury. This whole evening was just one exercise in control after another, and these  _ people _ . These people that kept  _ hurting his friends _ . Science? That’s just their excuse. They take what they want and no one stops them. Nothing changes.

“Cap…  _ Steve. _ He can’t talk if he’s dead.” Eliot moved into the side of Steve’s eyeline, his palms out, close but not touching Steve’s forearm.

Behind them the elevator made a quiet chiming noise and the doors slid open. Natasha and Parker stepped out, each of them holding an ankle of the man they were dragging. His head bounced over the door rails, and once his hands cleared the elevator they dropped his feet in unison.

“Hey, Cap. What’s up? Other than that guy? And your temper?” Natasha walked nonchalantly up to where they were standing. She glanced over the rapidly purpling scientist, Steve’s angry face, and the suspiciously Darcy-like body on the table. “I see.”

Parker peeked over Eliot’s shoulder, and narrowed her eyes at the body on the table.

“That’s not Darcy. Not the Darcy we left anyway.” Steve’s widening eyes darted between the body on the table, and Parker. He relaxed his arm a little, setting the scientist back on the ground.

“See? Darcy had a bruise on her head from earlier, and this Darcy doesn’t have one.” Parker half climbed Eliot to point to where the mark should be. Eliot rolled his eyes, but widened his stance so she wouldn’t wobble. Natasha smirked at the spectacle, and relaxed at the same time that Steve did. Parker twisted around Eliot to point at the scientist, his throat still held immobile by Steve. “Why do you have a Darcy?”

The scientist looked over at the body on the table, then the unconscious man on the floor.

“I didn’t know her name. I was hired by Justin Hammer to create a more bio-realistic version of a Life Model Decoy. He gave me the specifications, and a picture. He wanted me to be able to imprint the neural patterns of the original person onto the BLMD so it could operate more seamlessly among people. The goal was for the copy to be indistinguishable from the original, even among those who knew them well.” Steve and Eliot started to growl lowly in unison. Parker had gotten down from her perch, and was now poking at various tubes and vials on the nearby lab table. Natasha had appropriated a workstation, and had connected her mobile to the internal network to give JARVIS more access. “The BLMD has the same sort of mechanical endoskeleton as the earlier models, but a more realistic outer shell that has the same short term reactions as flesh. That’s what all these tubes are for - until this unit is activated, the organics are regulated externally. But the biggest difference in this model is definitely the programming. We were working on a way to duplicate some of the memories of the original subject without inhibiting the base programming of the unit - he didn’t want the ‘thoughts’ of the original subject to interfere with the goals of the BLMD. We found a way… mostly. I wasn’t prepared for a field test this soon, but Hammer was impatient. There are still problems with the process.”

“What was in the injection?” Natasha didn’t look up from where she was typing.

“Several things. A sedative. An immunosuppressant. The most complicated was a series of neuromapping nanocytes - tracing chemical and electric pathways in the brain. They send the information to a network of memory modules which attach near the injection site for easy removal. One of the biggest obstacles in the process is the sheer volume of information needed. We were having trouble regulating the-” his ramble was cut off by the loud awakening of Justin Hammer. 

Every head in the room turned to the screeching and whining man. Hammer’s hands were  still tied together, lying on the floor above his head, and his mouth was covered in a strip of duct tape. He was kicking his feet out, trying to swing himself into a sitting position. Natasha snorted at his failure, just as he managed to flail himself into something resembling dignified and used his bound hands to pull the tape off his mouth.

“You can’t be here! You can’t do this! Do you know who - oh shit.” Hammer’s voice got quiet at the sight of Natasha and Steve. He tried for an ingratiating smile, but on him it looked more like a wince. “C’mon guys. Nothing personal, right? I just needed an in to Stark’s operations. She seemed like the best option at the time. No super powers, no special skills. No one would notice if the ‘bot got a little squirrelly. I mean really, I don’t know why you’re so-”

Natasha and Eliot raised their eyebrows at Parker, who was standing behind Hammer’s twitching body. Parker shrugged and deactivated the taser she had pressed to the back of Hammer’s head. Again. He slumped forward onto his own legs, contorting into a position that would probably be very uncomfortable when he woke up.

“His voice is really annoying.” Parker knelt down to tie Hammer’s hands to his feet, and then pulled a roll of duct tape from… somewhere. Natasha almost grinned at the slight woman’s ability to hide things on her person. “Besides, he isn’t the one who knows what is wrong with Darcy.”

Steve had gotten more agitated as Hammer spoke. The idea that Darcy was targeted just because someone didn’t think she mattered? That she could just be taken, and drugged, and  _ used _ by these people? Steve grabbed the front of the scientist’s shirt, and hauled him in close.

“How do we help Darcy?” Steve’s voice was quiet as he glared at the trembling man in front of him. 

“... I don’t know. What are her symptoms?” Kenneth was fighting back his panic.

“She was disoriented and a little lethargic. The initial injection knocked her out for awhile, and a couple hours later she fainted. Pulse skyrocketed and she started seizing. Anti-convulsants were only moderately effective. She hasn’t regained consciousness.” Natasha rattled off the list without looking up from the terminal she had commandeered, so she missed Kenneth’s wince.

“The reason we hadn’t field tested the process is a temperature regulation problem with the nanocytes. As the scanning continues, they begin to overheat - that is what caused the seizing and unconsciousness. I can explain the neural damage… but I don’t know how to fix it.” Steve threw the man at Eliot, who spun and slammed him into the ground. Eliot snarled wordlessly in Kenneth’s terrified face. Parker made her way over to them and shoved at Eliot’s shoulder.

“Move so I can tie him up. I have duct tape.” Eliot resisted for a moment, then huffed and rose gracefully from the floor. 

“What now?” Eliot looked to Steve and Natasha. 

“Now, we leave them here for a friend of mine to pick up, while we go back to the Tower. I’ve transmitted the files to JARVIS, but Bruce would probably like samples of whatever we can find. One of us might have to stick around to vouch for what happened though.” Natasha finally stood from the computer and unplugged her mobile. She started to move around the room, carrying a plastic bin filled with empty glass vials. Eliot moved to help her, he put the liquid samples into the vials while Natasha snapped pictures of the setup and jotted labels on the closed containers.

“Oh. Would it help if I recorded the whole thing?” Parker bounced to her feet as she finished with the duct tape, and held up a small device. “I started recording when we let go of fancy suit guy.”

Natasha allowed her lips to quirk up and nodded. Parker handed her the small device and went over to press the elevator call button.

“I’m sure he’ll appreciate it. He’ll be here in three minutes. Let’s get moving.” Natasha pulled a small syringe out of a pocket and injected the wide eyed scientist. His eyes rolled up and fluttered closed, and his body went limp. Eliot grinned fiercely and collected the last of the samples from the table and put them into the bin. Steve pulled the sheet back over the BLMD, his eyes hard, and then spun to meet the other three at the elevator doors.

As the four of them picked their way through the groaning guards on the ground floor, a line of SUVs and APCs screeched into the parking lot. People in tactical gear spilled out and surrounded the mostly unconscious people still lying on the asphalt. Eliot tensed and Parker moved to the back of the group, but they both relaxed a bit when Natasha smiled and strode out toward a grinning man in an Air Force uniform.

“Colonel. Nice of you to stop by for our little shindig.” Natasha held out Parker’s recording and the man took it with a smile. “I think you’ll find that very enlightening. Also, Justin Hammer is bound and gagged in Lab 4.”

“Nice to see you Rhodes.” Steve patted the man on the back when he choked a bit at that. “Appreciate the help with cleanup.”

“I heard about Darcy. Pepper sent out an alert so I had already mobilized what I could. Let me know if I can help.” He turned to the two unfamiliar faces, and held out his hand to shake. “Colonel James Rhodes. Also, War Machine.”

“Eliot Spencer. You’re War Machine? From that thing in the Sudan? Like.. 2012?” Eliot shook his hand and quirked his mouth on one side. “I was on the ground with Vance.”

“Damn, man. Small world.” Rhodes turned to where Parker had been, but she was nowhere to be seen. “Wasn’t there…? Huh.” 

“She does that.”

 

* * *

 

Chaos stepped out of the cab and walked into the lobby of the Mandarin Oriental. 

“Oh yeah. This is _so_ much better than New Jersey.”


	11. Repairs

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We're coming into the beginning of the end. I think. Pretty sure.  
> This chapter is BARELY edited, so pls let me know if there are glaring mistakes.

Parker slipped away from the group and past the uniformed men toward the shadowed side of the building, away from the doors. A flash of silver caught her eye as she turned the corner, and the low rumble of a motorcycle was mostly drowned out by the shouting men and APCs in the parking lot.

“Hey! Wait!” Parker held up her hand and sprinted a little toward the man from the roof. He winked at her and gave a little salute, then dropped the clutch and sped out over the sidewalk toward the loading dock access road. “Dammit. I wanted to know what was up with his shiny arm.”

She whirled around and moved quickly through the shadows back to the SUV, slithering into the back seat through the window right before Nat opened the driver’s door. Steve startled a little at Parker’s reappearance, and Eliot barely raised a questioning eyebrow while he secured the bins of samples. The car was silent save for the quiet engine hum and the slight squealing of tires as Natasha headed back toward Manhattan.

 

* * *

 

Jane hadn’t moved at all during the incursion. She had barely acknowledged Thor when he returned from the fighting downstairs and pressed himself gently along her side. When Pepper walked through the stairwell door, Jane wordlessly held out the borrowed phone, notification light blinking brightly. Pepper padded softly across the room and took her phone; Jane’s eyes never turned from Darcy’s face. 

“She called me. I didn’t answer.” Jane’s voice was hollow. “I left my phone here, and I never check my messages… I wasn’t there. She keeps saving me and I just left her.”

“I was here when the signal came in Jane. None of us got there in time to help her. She got lucky.” Bruce was still trying to run a couple of analyses in the dim glow of the emergency lighting spilling over from the open door to the stairs.

“I didn’t even worry that she wasn’t in the rooms when we got back. She couldn’t leave me a voicemail because it’s full. If she hadn’t taken care of herself, who knows how long it would have been until I noticed she was gone?” Jane was pale, clutching Darcy’s hand. Pepper sighed from where she was tapping at her phone.

“Jane. I get it. You feel guilty because Darcy is hurt, but you can’t make this about you.” Jane’s body tensed and her head snapped up to glare at Pepper. Thor wrapped his hand around Jane’s side, pulling her to lean against him, and dropping his head down to speak softly in her ear.

“Pepper is right, my heart. You need to put aside your guilt and grief. Focus on Darcy.” Jane slumped onto Thor’s chest, tears in her eyes.

The room lapsed into silence, broken only be small clatters from Bruce’s glassware and the light tapping of Pepper’s fingers on her phone. 

 

* * *

 

Hardison was only maintaining his composure because he was focused on the panel in front of him. He had his hands in the wiring that helped JARVIS run Stark Tower, and Tony Stark was trusting him to help reroute the power away from the sections that were too damaged for the quick repairs they were attempting.

“How’s it going over there, Whiz Kid?” Tony’s voice echoed in the mostly empty hallway. The floor was littered in bits of drywall and soot from the indelicate measures Tony had taken to open sections of wall. It’s a good thing he had his own construction people for this sort of thing. “I’ve set the new wiring for you. When you’re done with those connectors, we’re gonna have to go down to Sub 2. You ready to see behind the curtain?”

Tony watched Hardison’s reaction carefully. While they had been searching for things to help Darcy, JARVIS had given him more information on Alec Hardison. Tony had been keeping tabs on him for awhile, without knowing his identity. Someone as brilliant with both hardware and software was never going to fly completely under the radar, but Tony hadn’t been able to put a face or a name to the various acts of computer genius. The fact that the kid had managed to keep Tony in the dark was impressive, but the nature of the crimes was the interesting part. Always taking down corrupt businesses, politicians, and he was pretty sure the kid had actually hacked an airport at some point. He saw Hardison’s face light up, and the look was one he knew he’d worn hundreds of times. Excitement. Anticipation. And just a hint of trepidation. All while his hands still worked quickly through the last of the electronics maintenance. Tony was never confident in his assessment of people, but something about this kid just pulled at him. 

“Mr. Stark. I… really?” Hardison was not often lost for words. He’d talked his way out of life or death situations dozens of times; talked his way around security guards, police, wealthy dilettantes, and hardened criminals. But confronted with Tony Freaking Stark asking if he wanted to see the heart of Stark Tower? There were no words.

“C’mon kid. Lets finish this and go downstairs. J-man, keep me updated about Lewis and the away team, k?” Tony smirked at Hardison’s little squeak of nerd glee, which was barely muffled by JARVIS’s reply, then spun around and headed for the elevator. “C’mon Whiz Kid. I’ll show you how deep the rabbit hole goes.”

 

* * *

 

“All of these guys were just rent-a-goons. Not one HYDRA operative among them. If this was Hammer, his standards are… well… about the same.” Clint kept up a rambling monologue while he and Sam shoved the last of the bound men into the service elevator.

“Hey JARVIS, can you send this car down to lobby level, and keep it locked down? Stark Security are down there to help with the transfer to police custody, right?” Sam glanced up at the ceiling when talking to JARVIS, a habit that most of the Tower residents shared.

“Yes, Mr. Wilson. The Tower security and police force are both standing by in the lobby for the infiltrators.” The doors slid shut and they could hear the elevator move down and away. “If you would like to proceed up to the lab levels, Mr. Stark and Mr. Hardison have succeeded in a temporary repair of vital systems, so the residential elevator is now available.”

“Thanks, JARVIS.” Sam smiled at the ceiling, and Clint waved a hand in the same direction before bumping his side into Sam’s and propelling them both toward the residential elevator.

“Good. I need to grab a new set of hearing aids. I’ve been down to one since I got back and it’s fucking staticky; I’m pretty sure that’s the only reason Nat didn’t yell more when I dropped the earbud earlier. Tony said he was working on a new prototype.” Clint pulled his remaining hearing aid out and shook his head some. Sam made sure to turn slightly so Clint would be able to see his face.

“I’m sure it has nothing to do with knowing Tony is downstairs, and can’t get deep into explanations of the features before you get a chance to try them out, right?” Sam snickered when Clint attempted to look innocent. JARVIS had the elevator ready when they approached, and they rode in silence up to the lab.

Clint moved to Tony’s side of the lab to find his hearing aids while assessing the room. Darcy was unmoving on the exam table, Jane holding her hand and Thor standing over them both. Bruce was gesticulating wildly at several blinking screens, and from what he could tell, yelling at someone who was not actually in the room. Sam was walking over to Pepper who was texting furiously with a very scary expression on her face. Clint focused on the side table he’d last seen the hearing aids Tony was working on for him. He found them under a sticky note that read ‘Let me know if they need tweaking - T’ and examined them before putting them in his ears. 

“Mr. Stark has requested that I assist you in the calibration of your new aural enhancement devices - or AEDs.” Clint barely managed to not startle at JARVIS’s voice in his ears. 

“Geez! Oh. Yeah. Thanks JARVIS. Wait… does that mean you can track me through these?” Clint body tensed. He was not comfortable with Tony knowing where he was all the time. “And if you can, is there a way I can stop that?”

“You may, of course, disable my connection at your discretion. However, it is also possible for you to reactivate communication with myself or Mr. Stark with a specified phrase, much like Ms. Lewis and her mobile device.” Clint couldn’t stop himself from looking over at Darcy, and his shoulders dropped slightly.

“Ok, J. Let’s take these out for a test run.”

 

* * *

 

Bruce was worried. Natasha had connected with JARVIS at Hammer’s lab, and sent whatever information she thought could help. There was a lot to sift through, but between JARVIS and Bruce, they had found the useful parts fairly quickly. Unfortunately, none of what they found was reassuring, and Bruce had begun shouting at the scientists who had come up with this nonsense. Finally he came to a file that had him stop mid-tirade.

“JARVIS, can you tell Tony that I need him to come up here as soon as he can?” Bruce’s voice was shaking a little, and it caught Jane’s attention.

“Bruce? What’s wrong? Why do you need Tony?” Jane clutched harder at Darcy’s hand, and Thor pulled her a little closer to his chest.

“Jane… from what I can tell, Darcy was injected with nanocytes. That normally wouldn’t be a problem, but they aren’t built in a way that can handle what they are programmed to do. They are putting out a lot of heat. They are also emitting low level electrical fields which are interfering with her neuroelectrical impulses. Tony can probably stop the spread… but until he does, we don’t know how badly she’s… well… We don’t know how much damage has already been done.” Bruce kept his eyes on the data scrolling by and tried not to be affected by Jane’s choked sob.

“Hey Brucey, JARVIS said you needed me?” Tony’s voice rang through the room, and his face popped up on one of the central screens in the room. Hardison could be seen behind him, focused on something to the side.

“Tony, Darcy was injected with some sort of nanocyte. They are supposed to map her neural net for replication in some sort of second generation LMD… but the engineering is not what it needs to be. They are overheating and disrupting the electrical impulses in her brain. We need to turn them off, before… well. We need to turn them off.” As Bruce spoke, Tony’s face hardened. 

“Send me whatever specs you have. Five minutes. We’ll get it done. Whiz Kid, you go software, I’ll work on hardware. Bruce, we’ll be up when we’ve got it.” The screen went blank.

Sam sighed and looked over the mostly quiet room. Jane was whispering to Thor, and she’d moved to pet Darcy’s hair gently. Clint was muttering in the corner, Bruce was reading data on three different screens simultaneously, and Pepper… Pepper was finally done texting, and looked less like she was about to eviscerate whoever was on the other side of her phone line. Which was probably best for everyone.

Sam’s pocket vibrated, and he fished out his mobile and slid his thumb across the screen.

“Team is incoming. Rhodes secured the HammerTech building, Nat grabbed all the physical samples and files she could find.” Bruce waved his hand behind him in acknowledgement, but didn’t look away from his screens. Clint had finished fiddling with his new tech, and joined Sam and Pepper near Darcy. Everyone was tense - there was nothing they could do but wait.

The elevator doors opened, and Tony and Hardison charged out ahead of Steve, Natasha, Eliot, and Parker. Steve was carrying a plastic bin filled with vials, and brought it over to Bruce’s station before turning toward Darcy.

Tony and Hardison were fluttering around her head with tiny metal things, and seemed to be speaking a language that no one but maybe Bruce and Nat spoke. 

“Okay. She might seize again when this happens, but we have to turn these things off before they do anymore damage. Bruce, get ready with whatever you’ve got that can help. Okay? Here we go.” Tony attached various bits to Darcy’s head, all wired to the small handheld device Hardison was tapping on. There were several beats of absolute silence, then the monitoring systems around Darcy shrieked as she began convulsing again. Bruce swore, and Eliot held tightly to Darcy’s arm with the IV while Bruce quickly injected something into the line. The seconds stretched on, before Hardison made a triumphant noise and the convulsions began tapering off.

“Okay, they are all returning to the memory unit and we should be able to extract them in about a minute. It was safer than leaving them in and just deactivating them. They have stopped trying to scan though, so there shouldn't be any additional damage on the way out.” Hardison caught Eliot’s eye and smiled a little in greeting. Parker had come up behind him and wrapped her arms around his waist once he had started to speak. They hadn’t really said anything to one another in the elevator, he and Mr. Stark were still hashing out the details on the way up to the lab.

“Do we know when she’ll wake up?” Eliot’s voice was rough. It had been a whirlwind of a night.

“... We don’t know  _ if _ she’ll wake up.” Bruce was quiet. “That kind of injury to her brain? It’s complicated. Right now her autonomic functions seem to be fine, but we’ll need to run more scans to see if we can fix the damage. It may not be reversible.”

There was a long pause, everyone turning to look at Darcy. Pepper’s phone chimed quietly, and she looked at the screen before smiling triumphantly.

“I called in some specialists. They’ll be here in a moment.” 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> .. any guesses who is incoming?


	12. Reinforcements

“What do you mean ‘specialists?’ My tower was just  _ invaded _ and you’re bringing so-called specialists into it?!” Tony’s tirade pre-empted anyone else’s questions. “Who are these people? Have they been thoroughly vetted? How are they getting access? JARVIS don’t let any new people into the Tower!”

“Oh please, Stark. We hardly count as new.” Tony startled and spun around. Apparently he was the only one who hadn’t noticed the arrival of the elevator. His rising panic had drowned out everything but the millions of ways the people he cared about could have been hurt. Hurt because the defenses in his Tower had failed them. Again. Tony shook himself out of his own head and watched four women walk into the lab, hauling a huge piece of shiny tech behind them.

Sharon led the way, the only one who had actually been in the lab before, and raised an eyebrow when Tony failed to respond to her comment. Helen Cho nodded at Tony on her way to where Jane was still hovering over Darcy. Maria stopped next to Natasha, both immediately murmuring situation updates to the other. The final woman stayed near the elevator with the machinery, her light eyes half hidden behind a sweep of dark bangs but focused on the frozen figure of Bruce Banner.

“Betty! I’m so glad you’re okay!” Pepper swanned across the room on bare feet and pulled the other woman into a hug. “When I couldn’t get ahold of you and Helen I was so worried!”

Pepper continued talking to Betty while herding her further into the lab, but everyone else was focused on Bruce - his eyes pinned on Betty, his breathing slow and measured.

“Hey doc - should we prep for a code green?” Natasha’s voice cut through the building tension, and Bruce’s shoulders slumped a little. 

“No. I’m fine. Hello, Betty.” Bruce didn’t look directly at her, but kept his eyes somewhere near her left shoulder where Pepper’s hand rested.

“Hello, Bruce.” There was too much to say. Too many things between them to have any sort of discussion with this many people within earshot. Besides, there was someone who needed their immediate attention. “Pepper said Helen and I could help. What can I do?”

Bruce turned to the screen where JARVIS had already pulled up the relevant biochemical data from the Hammer Tech scientists’ failed experimentation. Betty stepped forward, but stayed far enough from Bruce that they couldn’t accidentally touch, not knowing where their boundaries were now. She scanned over the information, muttering under her breath about unethical scientists, and the orifices into which they should insert their lab equipment. 

“Helen. I’ll be able to tell you how to stabilize her neurochemistry, but the heat damage… I don’t…” Betty trailed off as she got to the end of the file JARVIS had given her. She looked to Helen and saw the expressions of the fourteen other people in the room, full of hope and trepidation. 

“She’ll live. With the Cradle I can even repair the brain tissue… but I can’t rebuild who she was. We don’t know how much of her memory, her personality… I can’t guarantee that will come back. The human consciousness doesn’t work like that.” Helen spoke gently to the apprehensive group. “There’s no way to know how much she will recover.”

Everyone stayed mostly silent. All of the Avengers were tense and grim. Parker stood between Hardison and Eliot, the three of them looking somewhat overwhelmed. Jane was pale and solemn faced, still gripping Darcy’s hand. She shrugged out from under Thor’s arm and stood staring hard at Darcy’s face. 

“We will help her remember. I don’t care how difficult it is, or how long it takes. If she can’t find the memories on her own, we’ll do it for her.” Jane smoothed her free hand over Darcy’s hair, careful to not dislodge the equipment still ringing her head.

“... do it for… Hey Doc!” Hardison was staring into the middle distance, as he often did when working a problem. Bruce, Betty, Jane, and Helen all stared expectantly at him. “Oh. Right. That one.”

Hardison pointed at Helen.

“Doctor Cho, but you can call me Helen.” Hardison waved vaguely in her direction and moved toward the screens he had been using.

“This Cradle thing… you said it can repair the brain tissue, but because the tissue is already damaged you won’t be able to recreate it exactly, right? The human brain is too individualized for that?” Hardison was speaking quickly, flipping through the information Natasha had gotten from Hammer Tech.

“Exactly. The things that make us individuals build up over time. Structural differences, sure, but so much is experiential… and I can’t fix that.” Helen tilted her head to the left. “Why?”

“They were trying to make a copy of her brain, right? Well we didn’t destroy the memory units, we just interrupted the cycle. Mr. Stark, do you think we could rig something to use the information from the nanocytes to help replicate her… y’know… self?” Hardison was only halfway through his thought when Tony shoved up beside him and started grabbing bits of the information sliding past on the screens.

“Whiz Kid, if this works? You can definitely call me Tony. Everyone who is not being useful, please go elsewhere.” Tony started to pull together a three dimensional model of the tech he would need, Hardison tossing over bits from his own screens that he thought would be needed. Helen, Betty, and Bruce were deep in discussion about the best way to set up the Cradle.

Thor gently pulled Jane away from Darcy. Natasha and Pepper corralled the rest of the crowd into the elevator. It was a bit of a tight fit - between Thor, Steve, Eliot, Clint, and Sam, there was a lot of shoulder width in a small space - but almost immediately Clint disappeared through the ceiling hatch, and Parker climbed up Thor to leap after him. Steve looked longingly after them - elevators full of people were not his favorite place.

The ride to the residential floor was awkward and silent, and a synchronized sigh of relief swept through the elevator when the doors opened. Pepper led the way to the living space which bordered the kitchen area. She stopped short when she noticed Parker and Clint perched on cabinets on opposite sides of the kitchen, tossing cheerios at each other and catching them in their mouths. 

“You know, I’m not even surprised.” Pepper continued into the living area and made herself comfortable on the couch. Everyone except Steve, Eliot, and Sam followed suit. 

Eliot walked into the kitchen, snatching a cheerio flying toward Clint out of the air and popping it in his mouth on his way to the refrigerator. Steve and Sam sat at the breakfast bar, slouching against the countertop. 

Eliot was only half listening to the newcomers explain how they had rescued the two scientists from what sounded like a rogue military cell; the rest of his focus was on the ingredients in the fridge and the pantry, thinking of what he could pull together for this many people. He wasn’t hungry, hell he doubted anyone else was either even though it was well past breakfast, but after all the fighting in the last few hours some food wouldn’t be a bad idea. He began pulling together ingredients for a passable stew - something that could simmer on the stove and people could eat as they wanted.

Eliot set all the ingredients on the counter near the breakfast bar, so he could face the room while he prepped the food. Clint and Parker had involved Steve and Sam in their game, occasionally throwing a cheerio in their direction with no warning. At the moment there were no cheerios on the floor or counter, so their reflexes seemed up to snuff. Natasha walked silently into the kitchen and started the industrial sized coffee maker. 

“Hand me a knife and I’ll get started on the potatoes. How small do you want them?” Sam walked around the island, still managing to catch the cheerio Parker threw at him. Eliot flipped the knife in his hand and gave it to Sam. 

“About this big.” Eliot mimed a small cube with his fingers, then went about chopping and slicing the rest of his ingredients. The two of them worked mostly in silence, keeping tabs on the room but not really engaging in the conversations. 

“Really! He CAN!” Eliot was putting the last of the root vegetables into the simmering stockpot when Parker’s voice rang above all the other noise in the room. Clint and Parker had eventually ran out of cereal, and busied themselves over near the dartboard on the wall. They were arguing about something, and Parker came sprinting up to him, shoving darts in his face. “Do that thing!”

Eliot sighed and looked at the dartboard, then off to the side at Clint’s skeptical face. Eliot smirked a little, shifted the darts in his hand, and threw one at the dartboard while still looking at Clint. The room went silent, and he could hear the thud from the dart hitting the center of the board.

“Oh no.” Natasha’s statement was more of a sigh. Clint’s eyes lit up with competitive excitement. “No, Clint.  _ No _ .”

Clint’s argument was forestalled by Tony and Hardison spilling into the room. 

“We’ve done what we can. Now it’s just waiting until the Cradle does it’s thing. Brucie, Betty, and Helen are staying in the lab to monitor, and JARVIS will keep us updated. I smell food! Is there food?” Tony didn’t stop walking until his face was almost in the stock pot. Eliot pushed him gently away from the stove, toward some chopped fruit and vegetables that Sam had left on the breakfast bar. Hardison was already there, munching on carrot sticks and holding an orange soda which had appeared out of nowhere. Eliot assumed Parker had found it. There were low conversations around the room, it sounded mostly like reassurances. Eliot let the noise wash over him, cataloguing the voices, but not really absorbing much.

The group ebbed and flowed through the room. Conversations stayed low, and while everyone spent time ensconced on the couch, no one managed to sleep and no one left the common areas. Eliot made some quick bread - a loaf of beer cheese bread and a loaf of plain irish soda bread - and people grabbed bowls of stew and chunks of bread as they convinced themselves to eat. The sun moved higher into the sky, but no news came from the labs.

“Mr. Hardison. The search you requested has found a match.” Hardison startled hard and choked a little on the bread he was eating. Parker slammed her hand against his back until he waved her off and his breathing went back to somewhat normal.

“Where is he, JARVIS?”

“Mr. Mason appears to be on the guest list for a formal luncheon and reception today at the Mandarin Hotel. The guests are arriving now.” Almost everyone winced at the reminder that it was pushing midday, and none of them had slept. “The luncheon is exceptionally high profile, but seems to mostly cater to those with ties to organizations of questionable legality.”

Tony pushed at a few buttons on his mobile device, and JARVIS projected photographs onto a wall screen. Each of them showed various well dressed people walking into the Mandarin hotel lobby, with their names attached at the bottom.

“We should probably not go bashing into a crime party, especially a rich people crime party. Without, y’know, the law on our side.” Sam shoved at Steve, and looked pointedly at Thor. “Who do we know that can infiltrate a rich criminal party?”

Natasha, Sharon, Eliot, Parker, and Hardison all raised their hands.

“Aww… Katie, no.” Everyone turned to Clint, who was staring at one of the newest photographs. A young woman in a purple day-dress was walking next to a man who looked to be her father. “We apparently already have someone at the party. Lemme make a call.”

“What… what am I seeing here? Clint has other friends?! How do I not know this?” Tony was gesturing with a chunk of green pepper.

“What? I know people!” Clint pulled his mobile out of his pocket, and scrolled down his contacts before hitting the call button and holding it up to his ear. “Hey Katie-Kate, do you happen to be at some fancy party at the Mandarin right now? Would you be interested in ditching it for some Avenging? There’s a guy there we need nabbed.” 

Clint paused and listened to the grumbling teenager on the line. He made a small affirmative noise, then winced, then finally sighed. “Fine. I’ll make it happen. I’ll get you the details, and send him for pickup. I’d put on pants if I were you.”

Everyone but Natasha stared at Clint in silence as he jabbed at his phone, ostensibly sending Chaos’ dossier to ‘Katie-Kate’. When that was done, Clint looked over at Thor.

“How would you feel about a very dashing entrance, and retrieval of our bad guy along with a junior Avenger?” Thor’s face lit up.

“How dashing shall I be?”

 

* * *

 

Kate stuck her phone back into her tote bag, and slipped away from her father toward the ladies room. He didn’t notice, which was no surprise. She dug out her Hawkeye outfit and collapsible bow, looked over the information Clint had sent, and grinned ferally. This was a much better way to attend a party. Kate shoved her dress into her bag, arranged it so her arrows were accessible and slung it across her body, then messaged Clint that she was ready to go.

“Okay ‘Chaos’. Let’s ruin your day.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There were a couple of correctish guesses, and a lot of accidental plot bunny spawnings. 
> 
> Also, thankyou Irian for the idea to bring in Kate! (I love Kate Bishop, okay?)


	13. Colin Mason's No Good Very Bad Day

Working for Justin Hammer had opened a whole new league of money making opportunities for Colin “Chaos” Mason. Money was never tight when you had his skillset, but the world was changing.  _ Aliens _ came out of the sky, and  _ Tony Freaking Stark _ built himself a robotic exosuit and became a superhero instead of a weapons manufacturer. The same Tony Stark that didn’t like his former employer - apparently to the point where someone at Stark Tower backtraced his signal, and apparently raided the Hammer Tech building not long after he left. The news had been vague, but he’d acquired more information this morning. Hammer was in custody, so were a couple of scientists and a couple dozen security people - luckily, he did not leave any evidence behind, only _ Maximum Chaos _ . 

Now he was invited to what amounted to a Who’s Who in Organized Crime mixer. It was an excellent reason to stay in the city. Besides, no one was going to be looking for him. He’d gotten out of Hammer’s building before anyone showed up, and there was nothing left in the building to link him to Hammer’s business. Pampering himself with a stay at the Mandarin Oriental was just what he deserved.

Chaos checked that his dark button down shirt was tucked neatly into his khakis, grabbed his messenger bag full of tech gear, and made sure to lock the hotel room door behind him on the way to the elevator. An elevator arrived quickly, even though he was on the fiftieth floor. He pressed the button for the thirty-sixth floor, the ballroom level, and the car moved quickly downward. 

The elevator doors opened to the ballroom foyer, and Chaos strolled across the marble tiles. His footsteps echoed loudly in the empty room, almost drowning out the low murmur of voices from the lobby downstairs. A discreet sign stood by the sweeping lobby staircase; it read ‘Lotus Suite’ underscored by an elegant arrow pointing to the right. 

He turned the corner past the restrooms, and his jaw sagged a bit at the woman leaning against the wall in front of him. She grinned in his direction, pushing away from the wall. He was easily distracted by her lithe feminine figure clad in asymmetrical purple spandex, long dark hair held out of her face with a pair of purple mirrored sunglasses.

“Please tell me you’re here for the brunch.” Chaos let his eyes roam over the woman’s body, and missed her disdainful look and rolling eyes as she closed the distance between them.

“Yes and no. I was on my way there when I got a more interesting invitation.” She came to a stop in front of him, looking up into his face searchingly. “How much do you weigh?”

“What?” Chaos took a half step back in confusion, pulling his attention from the woman’s body and actually looking at her face just in time to catch her disturbing grin.

“Can’t be heavier than Barton when the coffee runs out.” Before he could react, the woman jabbed him in the neck with something, and his vision went dark.

“Tranquilizer arrow. Barton will be so proud.” Kate looked down at the man now crumpled insensate at her feet. She reached down and grabbed him by the ankles, hauling him toward the door to her right which would get them to the secondary elevator, and down to the ground floor. 

She leaned against the cool metal wall, breathing a little heavily and jabbing at the button for the ground floor. Getting an unconscious nerd through the ground floor lobby was gonna be annoying. Sure, she had the costume and the skills, but she wasn’t exactly a well known superhero… and this dude looked about as threatening as her third grade teacher. Good thing she had some flashy backup on the way.

Finally the elevator slowed to a stop. Kate grabbed Chaos by the ankles, and pulled him out into the corner of the moderately bustling lobby where she was immediately greeted with incredulous stares. Two security guards moved toward her and she slumped a bit, dropping her burden and spinning to put her empty hands up in front of her.

“Listen guys, there is a perfectly good explanation for this.” Kate backed up enough that her heels bumped into the unconscious body behind her. “I’m an Avenger.”

The two guards snickered at her, clearly disbelieving, and reached for the stun guns on their belts. Their advance was halted when a booming voice rung through the room.

“HAWKEYE! My friend it is good to see you!” Thor was every inch his godly persona. He strode through the room in full armor, the crowd hushing and parting before him, his cape billowing in his wake. “I see you have apprehended the villain.”

“Are you here to render your assistance? I assure you, Hawkeye and myself have this well in hand.” The two guards looked dumbfounded at the huge figure in front of them. Thor stood tall in front of them, looking expectant.

“Uhhh.. sure. Glad to help. I mean… glad you’re here? I mean…” The guard was having trouble putting a sentence together, and Thor clapped him on the shoulder indulgently, causing the man to stumble sideways into his compatriot. 

“Excellent. We will be taking our leave, then.” Thor looked over at Kate, and shot her a subtle wink. “Do you have a way to make transporting him simpler?”

Kate grinned madly and picked through the arrows sticking out of her bag.

“Hold him up for me?” Thor grabbed both Chaos’ ankles in one hand and held him out to the side. Kate heard the crowd murmur when she pulled out her collapsible bow and nocked an arrow. She threw a wink and a smile to the two guards and released the arrow - which immediately opened into a thin mesh net, completely enveloping the man in Thor’s hand. “Tah dah.”

The crowd’s noises turned more approving and appreciative. Thor grabbed the edge of the net and began walking towards the doors out to 60th street. Kate had to jog to keep up with him. They stepped out onto the street, and began fastening the net to his belt, ensuring that Chaos would not plummet to the street during their flight to the tower. He then held out one hand to Kate, beckoning her closer, while the other shifted Mjolnir in his grip. 

“Come, I will take us back to the tower.” Kate tried to keep her cool as she stepped up to Thor’s side. He wrapped an enormous arm around her and began to swing Mjolnir rapidly, and then they were flying. She barely managed to keep her whoop of laughter behind her teeth, and tears were gathering in her eyes from the wind. The trip was short, but exhilarating. 

“Holy crap that was amazing.” Kate was breathless and couldn’t stop smiling when they touched down on the landing zone at Stark Tower. She half danced toward the doors, and Thor hefted the still unconscious Chaos over his shoulder and followed.

“Katie-Kate!” Clint pushed the door open and flung out his arms. “You made it! And brought gifts!”

Kate dodged around Clint’s arms, punching him in the kidney as she went. 

“Is there food? I’m missing brunch for this.” Kate heard Natasha snort, and tried to exude confidence and nonchalance while following the delicious smells coming from the kitchen area. Natasha appeared at her side, murmuring introductions in her ear regarding the unfamiliar faces. 

“Eliot Spencer, meet Kate Bishop. Also known as Hawkeye.” Kate nodded politely at the long haired man handing her a bowl of stew with a chunk of warm bread. 

“There are two Hawkeyes? Why are there two? How does that work?!” Kate startled so hard she almost dropped her bowl. Kate was difficult to sneak up on, she worked with people who bent reality, who turned _ invisible _ … and now there was a blonde woman right up in her space  _ out of nowhere _ . 

“She does that.” Kate looked incredulously at Eliot, who had either read her mind or was extremely accustomed to people having that reaction to his friend. Natasha started explaining the origin of the dual Hawkeyes to Parker, and Kate tried not to moan at the delicious food. 

Eliot walked over to where Thor had dropped his unconscious bundle to the open expanse of floor just inside the doors. Clint was removing the netting and grinning, something like pride on his face. Hardison was bouncing lightly in glee, looking down at Chaos like this was the best present he’d ever gotten.

“How do we wake him up? Will it help if I slap him?” Eliot snickered and shook his head at Hardison’s enthusiasm.

“Hey Kate, you used a tranq arrow?” Clint raised his voice and looked over to where Kate was shoveling stew into her mouth. She nodded vigorously while chewing. “Then we can either let it wear off naturally in about half an hour, or I can go grab something that will wake him up sooner.”

Natasha and Maria were conferring quietly to the side, and stepped closer before Hardison could reply. 

“We’d like to interrogate him; holding off on waking him will give us more time to prepare.” Clint nodded and lifted the unconscious man up over one shoulder. He waved off Steve, Sam, and Thor - all of whom had started to get up off the couches to help. Tony toasted them as they walked by and continued his conversation with Jane and Sharon. Eliot went with them, following Hardison, Maria, Natasha, and Clint into the elevator. Natasha grinned at the group.

“Now this is what I call a party.”

 

* * *

 

Chaos woke up slowly, head heavy and aching. The last thing he remembered was a woman in purple and… now he sitting in a chair? His eyes felt glued shut and the room was silent  around him.

“What the hell happened?” Chaos rubbed his hands over his eyes, scraping the crud from his eyelashes and finally getting a look at where he was. The room was dimly lit, grey walls and a single door on the far end, an empty chair in front of him, A beautiful brunette was smirking at him from where she was leaning against the wall next to the door, this one not wearing purple, but some kind of navy blue tactical outfit.

“You made some very bad choices, Colin. You irritated the wrong people.” The woman stepped forward and stalked toward him. Her eyes slid to someone behind him, out of sight, and an annoyingly familiar voice sounded in his ear.

“Say my name.” 

“You’ve got to be  _ kidding _ me. HARDISON? Who was the one who kidnapped me? That wasn’t Parker or Sophie, and they are the only girls you know.” Chaos snapped his head around to glare at his fellow hacker. He could hear his voice getting louder and higher in pitch, but he couldn’t help it. This was not Hardison’s usual style, and that was the most disconcerting part of waking up in a strange room. 

“Oh no. He’s not the reason we came after you, just the reason you got caught.” A third voice came from the doorway, which had apparently opened while he was distracted. The woman was shrouded in shadow due to the bright lights in the hallway, but when she stepped further into the room the light glinted off her red hair and Chaos started to get nervous.

“No. Way.  _ Black Widow _ ?! Are you telling me I got nabbed by an  _ Avenger _ ?!” He was somewhere between fanboy flailing and actual terror. The only thing that could have put him on their radar was his work for Hammer, and since he knew that the backtrace had come from… wait… “Am I in Stark Tower? Are you telling me that I am in Tony Stark’s personal love letter to futurism? This is the coolest thing ever. Way better than that BatCave you had the last time I saw you. Wait? How did  _ you _ get here?!”

Hardison rolled his eyes. He walked out, ignoring Chaos and his increasingly shrill questions, knowing that his refusal to explain was the most frustrating thing he could do. He closed the door behind him, leaving Chaos alone in a small room with two of the most frightening people he’d ever met. Eliot stood silent and supportive in the hallway, tilting his head in silent concern. Hardison shrugged in response, and Eliot bumped his shoulder as they walked to the elevator to get back upstairs. 

Eliot wasn’t usually one to let other people do the interrogating, but he knew that Chaos would spill his secrets more readily to a pissed off Black Widow and Maria Hill. Hell, he would too, which is probably why they left Carter upstairs. Chaos would have panicked himself into a heart atta-- Huh. Maybe Eliot would ask Carter to join the interrogation. Ms. Potts too. He could film it for Hardison’s birthday present this year. 

The elevator passed the lab floor where Darcy was still in the Cradle, and it took more self control than he’d like to keep from stopping. He knew there was nothing he could do, no way he could help. He couldn’t even hold her hand, they apparently had her completely sealed inside. Still, if Hardison hadn’t been in the elevator, he may have stopped it anyway.

There hadn’t been any news out of the labs, but Tony and Hardison agreed that no news was good news. Eliot didn’t know how this woman had become so important to him so quickly, but he’d really like the opportunity to find out. It had been more than 12 hours since he’d seen her across the bar, but after tonight? Hell, maybe she’d agree to having a beer with him, talking about their crazy lives. They were bound to have some downtime after she woke up, right?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I may already be halfway through the next chapter. I'm hoping to get that one out before I go on vacation.. *crosses fingers*


End file.
